with physical disabilities (dwarfism and kyphosis), "Wilder coaxed the frown of adverse fortune into a smile." Though nearly forgotten today, Wilder was heralded in his lifetime and did not let his dwarfism be an excuse for cheap entertainment. Wilder shunned offers by showmen like P.T. Barnum to instead become an established legitimate stage actor and sketch artist. He made his earliest motion picture appearance in 1897, for which he received $600, and his last in 1913. Wilder also left recordings of his routines. At the end of each performance Wilder was known to seek out everyone involved in the show to shake their hand always with a generous tip in his palm. Wilder was until his final curtain call a headliner earning a five-figure annual income. At one point in his career Wilder was willing to take a cut in pay in order to play a vaudeville circuit he felt catered to an audience that better appreciated his humor. This did not happen, however, because of booking issues. Marriage In 1903 Marshall Wilder married Sophie Cornell Hanks, the daughter of a New Jersey dentist. Sophie was a writer and dramatist who collaborated with Wilder on his books. Their daughter Grace was born in 1905 around the time the couple returned from the world tour. Marshall Jr. followed a year or so later. On December 20, 1913, Sophie died at the age of 35 in New York City after a brief illness and failed operation. She was in the city to give dramatic readings of her new book, The Golden Lotus. Death Following the loss of his wife, Wilder's health began to decline and a little over a year later fell ill while in St. Paul, Minnesota, for an engagement. His death there on January 10, 1915, was attributed to heart disease complicated by pneumonia. The funeral service was held a few days later at the Stephen Merritt Mortuary Chapel in New York. The writer and artist Elbert Hubbard wrote an obituary for Wilder which declared Wilder "picked up the lemons that Fate had sent him and started a lemonade-stand." Marshal Wilder was survived by his children, who shared the bulk of his quarter-million-dollar estate, and a sister, Jennie Cornelia Wilder, who also had some success as an entertainer of diminutive stature. During the Great Depression Grace Wilder served as director of the Puppets and Marionettes department of the Public Works