Charlotte Wilder

Charlotte Wilder (1898–1980) was an American poet and the eldest sister of author Thornton Wilder, Isabel Wilder, Janet Wilder Dakin, and Amos Wilder.

Life

She grew up in Berkeley, California and graduated from Berkeley High School (Berkeley, California). She received her B.A in English literature, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Mount Holyoke College in 1919 and her M.A. from Radcliffe College. She taught at Wheaton College and Smith College until 1934 when she became a full-time poet.

According to an article in the January 15, 1983 issue of The Nation, ("New Deal New York" by Frederika Randall), Wilder worked on the Federal Writers' Project, part of the Works Progress Administration, during the 1930s. Other writers who worked on this project included Richard Wright (author), Ralph Ellison, Claude McKay, David Ignatow, and Maxwell Bodenheim.

She suffered from a nervous breakdown in 1941, the repercussions of which lasted until her death in 1980.

Select poetry

The following appeared in The Nation:

• Loew's Sheridan, Volume 146, Issue 0025, June 18, 1938
• Isolation, Volume 138, Issue 3594, May 23, 1934
• Sculptured, Volume 138, Issue 3577, January 24, 1934

The following appeared in Poetry Magazine:

• The Last Hour, Volume 24, July 1924, Page 200
• Of Persons Not Alive, Volume 39, March 1932, Page 303
• City Streets, Volume 47, January 1936, Page 198
• To Beauty, Volume 47, January 1936, Page 198
• Sanctuary, Volume 52, July 1938, Page 202
• Mortal Sequence, Volume 55, January 1940, Page 217 (see Daly, James)

Two collections of her work were published by Coward-McCann, Inc.: Phases of the Moon (1936) and Mortal Sequence (1939).

Awards

• 1937: Wilder shared the Shelley Memorial Award for Poetry in 1937 with Ben Belitt

External links

• Biography from the Thornton Wilder Society
• Evelyn Scott Drafts of Charlotte Wilder Biography from the University of Tennessee