Cherry Wilder
Cherry Wilder, born Cherry Barbara Grimm in 1930 in Auckland, New Zealand, was a notable author best known for her contributions to the fantasy and science fiction genres. Growing up as the only white student in her local Maori school, she developed a unique cultural perspective that informed her writing. She began crafting stories at a young age, with her first notable recognition occurring in 1941 at just eleven years old when she won second prize in a Christmas writing competition. Wilder pursued higher education at the University of Canterbury, earning a B.A. in 1952, and later embarked on a diverse career that included directing a theatre guild and teaching.
Wilder achieved significant acclaim in the 1970s with her first published science fiction story, "The Ark of James Carlyle," which garnered positive attention. Her debut novel, *The Luck of Brin's Five*, won the Ditmar Award, establishing her as a prominent figure in Australian speculative fiction. She is particularly recognized for the Rulers of Hylor trilogy, which features strong character development, despite mixed critical reception. Wilder's literary contributions extend beyond novels to numerous short stories and articles published in various anthologies and journals. After living in West Germany for many years, she returned to New Zealand, where she passed away from cancer in 2002. Her work continues to resonate with readers interested in fantasy and science fiction.
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Cherry Wilder
Writer
- Born: September 3, 1930
- Birthplace: Auckland, New Zealand
- Died: March 14, 2002
- Place of death: Wellington, New Zealand
Biography
Cherry Wilder was the pseudonym of Cherry Barbara Grimm, who was born in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1930. Both of her parents were teachers in the local Maori schools, which Wilder, their only child, also attended; Wilder often was the only white student in her class. Wilder’s great-great grandmother was Maori and her great-great grandfather was an Irish immigrant to Tasmania.
Wilder began writing as a child during the Depression, when her father gave her a copy of A.A. Milne’s Now We Are Six (1927) when she was three years old. In interviews, she dated the start of her writing career to 1941, when she was eleven years old and her story about Santa Claus received the second prize award of ten shillings in the Aukland Herald newspaper’s Christmas writing competition.
Wilder received a B.A. in 1952 from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. After graduating from college, she married philosophy professor Sandy Anderson in 1953 and relocated to Sydney, Australia, where she was the director of the Theatre Arts Guild. After she divorced her husband, she took a second job in 1958 teaching English and ancient history at a high school. She stopped working in 1961, shortly after her marriage to print compositor Horst Grimm, a German-born expatriate. The couple had two daughters, Catherine and Louisa, born in 1963 and 1965, respectively.
Wilder published numerous short pieces in magazines during the 1960’s, including reviews and nonfiction articles, and received two Australia Council grants in 1973 and 1975. She published her first science-fiction story, “The Ark of James Carlyle,” in 1974, and the story was well-received by the public and critics. Both that story and “Way Out West,” published in 1975, were nominated for Australia’s Ditmar Award. Her first novel, published in 1977 and using her lifelong pseudonym Cherry Wilder, was The Luck of Brin’s Five, which received the Ditmar Award from the Australian National Science Fiction Convention. Wilder later wrote two sequels to her first novel, The Nearest Fire and The Tapestry Warriors, forming the Torin trilogy. Several of her more than thirty short stories also are set in the Torin universe.
Wilder is best known for her Rulers of Hylor trilogy of fantasy novels: A Princess of the Chameln, Yorath, the Wolf, and The Summer’s King. Although the three novels were not critically acclaimed, they are considered to be intelligent books, with strong and complex characters. Her novel, The Wanderer, published posthumously in 2004, was intended to be the first novel in a new trilogy also set in the imaginary world of Hylor.
In addition to appearing in numerous anthologies, including several Isaac Asimov volumes and the 1997 and 1999 editions of Year’s Best Science Fiction, several of Wilder’s stories were collected in Dealers in Light and Darkness. Wilder also published articles in the Australian literary journal, Meanjin, and in the Canadian magazine, Prism International. She was a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, Women Writers of Australia, and the British Science Fiction Association.
Wilder and her husband relocated to his native West Germany in 1976, where they lived until his death in 1992. Wilder returned to Australia a few years after his death and died of cancer in 2002 at her home in Wellington, New Zealand.