Chronology

1897: Born in Madison, Wisconsin (April 17)

1906 : Moves to Hong Kong (May) and to Berkeley, California (October)
1906-10: Attends Emerson Public School in Berkeley
1910-11: Attends China Inland Mission School, Chefoo (Yantai), China
1912-13: Attends Thacher School, Ojai, California
The Russian Princess, Wilder's first play known to be produced, is performed by Thacher students
1915: Graduates from Berkeley High School; active in school dramatics
1915-17: Attends Oberlin College; publishes regularly
1920: Receives B.A., Yale College (with brief service in 1918 with U.S. Army in 1918); many publications
1920-21: Attends American Academy in Rome as special student
1920s: Teaches at Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, New Jersey ('21-'25, and '27-'28)
1924: First residency at the MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, New Hampshire
1926: Receives M.A. degree in French, Princeton University
The Trumpet Shall Sound produced in New York Off-Broadway Laboratory Theatre
The Cabala (first novel)
1927: Second Novel: The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Pulitzer Prize)
1928: The Angel That Troubled The Waters (first published collection of drama--playlets)
1930s: Part-time teacher, University of Chicago
(comparative literature and composition); lectures across the country;
first visit to Hollywood (1934); extensive foreign travel
1930: The Woman of Andros (novel)
1931: The Long Christmas Dinner and Other Plays (six full one-act plays)
1932: Lucrece (translation of André Obey's Le Viol de Lucrèce) opens on Broadway staring Katharine Cornell
1935: Heaven's My Destination (novel)
1937: Adaptation of Ibsen's A Doll's House for Broadway, starring Ruth Gordon (Broadway record for this play until 1999)
1938: Our Town opens on Broadway (Pulitzer Prize); performs role of The Stage Manager for two weeks
1942: The Skin of Our Teeth opens on Broadway (Pulitzer Prize)
Writes xcreenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's The Shadow of a Doubt
1942-45: Military service with Army Air Force Intelligence in North Africa and Italy
1948: The Ides of March (novel)
Performs in his plays in summer stock
The Victors off-Broadway (translation of Jean-Paul Sartre's Morts Sans Sépulture)
1949 : Major role in Goethe Convocation in Aspen; lectures widely abroad.
1951-52: Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard
1952: Gold Medal for Fiction, American Academy of Arts and Letters
1953: On cover of Time Magazine (January 12)
1955: The Matchmaker opens on Broadway with Ruth Gordon (revision of the 1938 play, The Merchant of Yonkers)
The Alcestiad produced at Edinburgh Festival (as A Life in the Sun) with Irene Worth
1957: Awarded German Booksellers Peace Prize, first American to receive this award
1961: Opera version of The Long Christmas Dinner (music by Paul Hindemith, libretto by Wilder) premieres in Mannheim, Germany, December 20, 1961
1962: Plays for Bleeker Street (Someone from Assisi, Infancy, and Childhood) performed at Circle in the Square Theater in New York City
Operatic version of The Alcestiad (music by Louise Talma, libretto by Wilder) premieres in Frankfurt, Germany, February 28, 1962
1963: Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom
1964: Hello, Dolly! Opens on Broadway starring Carol Channing
1965: Awarded National Book Committee's Medal for Literature
1967: The Eighth Day (novel); receives National Book Award for Fiction
1973: Theophilus North (novel)
1975: Dies in sleep in Hamden, Connecticut (December 7)