William Cleaver Wilkinson was an American clergyman, educator, and writer who balanced a career in the ministry with academic appointments in theology and literature. Born in Westford, Vermont, in 1833, he graduated from the University of Rochester and the Rochester Theological Seminary. He served as a pastor for Baptist congregations in Connecticut and Ohio before transitioning into academia. Over his career, he held various professorships, teaching modern languages, homiletics, and pastoral theology, culminating in his appointment as professor of poetry and criticism at the University of Chicago in 1892.
As a writer and intellectual, Wilkinson published poetry and essays, and he is credited with popularizing the "Three W's and the Five W's" mnemonic. His "Dedication Hymn," featured in his collection Poems, was performed at major theological institutions. He was also a vocal participant in contemporary religious discourse; at the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago, he delivered a notable lecture titled The Attitude of Christianity toward other Religions, where he argued for limited tolerance of inter-religious relations while maintaining the exclusivity of Christian truth.
Wilkinson retired from active teaching to focus entirely on his literary endeavors. He spent his final decades engaged in writing and public speaking before his death in Chicago in 1920 following injuries from a fall.
