Wilder, Billy, 1906-2002, American film director, producer, and writer, b. Sucha, Galicia (now Poland) as Samuel Wilder. He wrote for films in Berlin, fled the Nazis, and arrived in Hollywood in 1934. After writing various screenplays, he directed his first film in 1942, and soon developed a reputation as a witty and harshly sardonic critic of American mores. At first he mixed dramas and comedies, later concentrating on satire, and his 25 films represent many styles, approaches, and themes. His The Lost Weekend (1945), an unsparing study of alcoholism, won Academy Awards for direction, production, and screenplay; Sunset Boulevard (1950), an acidic look at Hollywood, won another for best screenplay; and The Apartment (1960), a morally ambiguous modern tale, again won him three Oscars. Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959) is one of the finest comic films ever made. His other films include Double Indemnity (1944), Stalag 17 (1953), Sabrina (1954), Witness for the Prosecution (1957), Fedora (1979), and Buddy Buddy (1981).

Wilder, Laura Elizabeth Ingalls, 1867-1957, American author of the classic Little House series of children's books, b. Pepin, Wisc. She and her pioneer family traveled (1869-79) throughout the Midwest by covered wagon, settling (1880) in the Dakota Territory. She became a rural schoolteacher at 15, married (1885) Almanzo Wilder, and moved (1894) with him to a farm in the Missouri Ozarks. Beginning to write in her forties, she recorded fictionalized tales of her childhood. These novels, lively accounts of a loving, challenging, hardscrabble pioneer life, began with Little House in the Big Woods (1932), published when she was 65. Extremely popular, the series came to include Farmer Boy (1933), Little House on the Prairie (1935), On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937), By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939), The Long Winter (1940), Little Town on the Prairie (1941), These Happy Golden Years (1943), and The First Four Years (1971). In creating these novels, Ingalls was aided by her daughter, the journalist and writer Rose Wilder Lane, 1886-1968, who rewrote and edited the original works, adding dramatic structure to her mother's manuscripts. The degree of Lane's participation, which varied from book to book, has been disputed by several biographers. Ingalls' novels were also the basis of a U.S. television series (1974-82).

Wilder, L. Douglas (Lawrence Douglas Wilder), 1931-, American political leader, b. Richmond, Va. The grandson of slaves, Wilder studied law at Howard Univ. A Democrat, he was elected a state senator in 1969, becoming the first African American to serve in the Virginia legislature since Reconstruction. Wilder was subsequently Virginia's lieutenant governor (1986-90) and then governor (1990-94), the first elected African-American governor in U.S. history. During his term in office he held the line on taxes, balanced the state budget, and succeeded in passing controversial bond issues and a handgun control measure. The outspoken and often combative Wilder was briefly an unsuccessful aspirant for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992 and just as briefly an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate from Virginia in 1994. In 2004, however, he made a political comeback when he was elected mayor of Richmond, Va.

Wilder, Thornton Niven, 1897-1975, American playwright and novelist, b. Madison, Wis., grad. Yale (B.A., 1920) and Princeton (M.A., 1925). He received most of his early education in China, where his father was in the U.S. consular service. Wilder taught in colleges and universities in the United States and Europe; he was (1950-51) Charles E. Norton professor of poetry at Harvard. A serious and highly original dramatist, Wilder often employed nonrealistic theatrical techniques, i.e., scrambled time sequences, minimal stage sets, characters speaking directly to the audience, and the use of a narrator. His plays, like his novels, usually maintain that true meaning and beauty are found in ordinary experience.

Wilder's first important literary work was the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927; Pulitzer Prize), which probes the lives of victims of a bridge disaster in Peru. Among his other novels are The Cabala (1926); The Woman of Andros (1930); Heaven's My Destination (1934); The Ides of March (1948); The Eighth Day (1967), an old-fashioned saga about two families that is also a mystery story and an exploration of chance and human destiny; and Theophilus North (1973), a comic account of the experiences of an unusual young man living in Newport, R.I., during the summer of 1929.

Although he had written one-act plays, published in The Angel That Troubled the Waters (1928) and The Long Christmas Dinner (1931), Wilder did not achieve critical recognition as a playwright until the production of Our Town (1938; Pulitzer Prize). Perhaps the most familiar and most frequently produced of all American plays, it relates a panoramic story of unexceptional, yet universally recognizable people in Grover's Corners, N.H. The Skin of Our Teeth (1942; Pulitzer Prize) has affinities to James Joyce's Finnegans Wake (1939); it treats the unending human struggle to survive. Wilder's other plays include The Merchant of Yonkers (1938), which was revised as The Matchmaker (1954) and adapted, by others, into the musical Hello Dolly! (1963); and Plays for Bleecker Street (1962), one-act plays from his projected "Seven Ages of Man" and "Seven Deadly Sins" cycles. In 1965, Wilder was awarded the first National Medal for Literature.

(born April 17, 1897, Madison, Wis., U.S.—died Dec. 7, 1975, Hamden, Conn.) U.S. playwright and novelist. After attending Yale University, Wilder studied archaeology in Rome. He earned wide acclaim for his second novel, The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927, Pulitzer Prize). His play Our Town (1938, Pulitzer Prize), which became one of the most enduringly popular of all American plays, was followed by the successful The Skin of Our Teeth (1942, Pulitzer Prize). In them he rejected naturalism, often discarding props and scenery, using deliberate anachronisms, and having the characters address the audience directly. His farcical play The Matchmaker (1954) was adapted into the musical Hello, Dolly! (1964). Wilder's later novels include The Eighth Day (1967) and Theophilus North (1973).

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orig. Laura Ingalls

(born Feb. 7, 1867, Lake Pepin, Wis., U.S.—died Feb. 10, 1957, Mansfield, Mo.) U.S. children's author. She led the pioneer life with her family, living in Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota, where she married. With her husband she finally settled in Missouri, where she edited the Missouri Ruralist for 12 years before being encouraged by her daughter to write down her childhood memories, and the internationally popular Little House books (1932–43) were the result. They were the basis for a popular television series (1974–84).

Learn more about Wilder, Laura Ingalls with a free trial on Britannica.com.

orig. Samuel Wilder

(born June 22, 1906, Sucha, Austria—died March 27, 2002, Beverly Hills, Calif., U.S.) Austrian-born U.S. film director and screenwriter. Working as a reporter in Vienna and Berlin, he wrote screenplays for German films. He fled Germany in 1933 and arrived in Hollywood a year later. He cowrote screenplays with Charles Brackett and established his reputation as a director with Double Indemnity (1944). Noted for his humorous treatment of controversial subjects and his biting indictments of hypocrisy, he also directed The Lost Weekend (1945, Academy Award), Sunset Boulevard (1950, Academy Award for best screenplay), Stalag 17 (1953), and The Apartment (1960, Academy Award). His acclaimed comedies include Sabrina (1954), The Seven Year Itch (1955), Some Like It Hot (1959), and Kiss Me, Stupid (1964).

Learn more about Wilder, Billy with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born April 17, 1897, Madison, Wis., U.S.—died Dec. 7, 1975, Hamden, Conn.) U.S. playwright and novelist. After attending Yale University, Wilder studied archaeology in Rome. He earned wide acclaim for his second novel, The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927, Pulitzer Prize). His play Our Town (1938, Pulitzer Prize), which became one of the most enduringly popular of all American plays, was followed by the successful The Skin of Our Teeth (1942, Pulitzer Prize). In them he rejected naturalism, often discarding props and scenery, using deliberate anachronisms, and having the characters address the audience directly. His farcical play The Matchmaker (1954) was adapted into the musical Hello, Dolly! (1964). Wilder's later novels include The Eighth Day (1967) and Theophilus North (1973).

Learn more about Wilder, Thornton (Niven) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

orig. Laura Ingalls

(born Feb. 7, 1867, Lake Pepin, Wis., U.S.—died Feb. 10, 1957, Mansfield, Mo.) U.S. children's author. She led the pioneer life with her family, living in Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota, where she married. With her husband she finally settled in Missouri, where she edited the Missouri Ruralist for 12 years before being encouraged by her daughter to write down her childhood memories, and the internationally popular Little House books (1932–43) were the result. They were the basis for a popular television series (1974–84).

Learn more about Wilder, Laura Ingalls with a free trial on Britannica.com.

orig. Samuel Wilder

(born June 22, 1906, Sucha, Austria—died March 27, 2002, Beverly Hills, Calif., U.S.) Austrian-born U.S. film director and screenwriter. Working as a reporter in Vienna and Berlin, he wrote screenplays for German films. He fled Germany in 1933 and arrived in Hollywood a year later. He cowrote screenplays with Charles Brackett and established his reputation as a director with Double Indemnity (1944). Noted for his humorous treatment of controversial subjects and his biting indictments of hypocrisy, he also directed The Lost Weekend (1945, Academy Award), Sunset Boulevard (1950, Academy Award for best screenplay), Stalag 17 (1953), and The Apartment (1960, Academy Award). His acclaimed comedies include Sabrina (1954), The Seven Year Itch (1955), Some Like It Hot (1959), and Kiss Me, Stupid (1964).

Learn more about Wilder, Billy with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Wilder is a city in Canyon County, Idaho, United States. The population was 1,462 at the 2000 census. The home of former Idaho State Governor Phil Batt, Wilder is primarily an agricultural community, with onions, hops, seed corn, beans and alfalfa seed among the major crops. Wilder has a meat processing plant, SSI, manufacturing frozen individual serving hamburgers and french fries.

Wilder is part of the Boise City–Nampa, Idaho Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Geography

Wilder is located at (43.676451, -116.910122).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 0.4 square miles (1.0 km²), of which, 0.4 square miles (1.0 km²) of it is land and 2.56% is water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 1,462 people, 389 households, and 315 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,885.7 people per square mile (1,485.5/km²). There were 421 housing units at an average density of 1,118.9/sq mi (427.8/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 33.99% White, 0.21% African American, 0.14% Native American, 0.27% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 62.93% from other races, and 2.39% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 76.40% of the population.

There were 389 households out of which 52.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 65.6% were married couples living together, 9.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 19.0% were non-families. 17.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.76 and the average family size was 4.30.

In the city the population was spread out with 39.2% under the age of 18, 13.3% from 18 to 24, 25.2% from 25 to 44, 15.1% from 45 to 64, and 7.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 24 years. For every 100 females there were 99.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.7 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $21,731, and the median income for a family was $25,625. Males had a median income of $22,188 versus $16,250 for females. The per capita income for the city was $7,601. About 27.7% of families and 31.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 37.4% of those under age 18 and 26.3% of those age 65 or over.

References

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