[6] He attended Harvard College, originally majoring in political science, but switching to English after taking a course in creative writing from Robert Fitzgerald.

[3]: 128  The Road to Yuba City was a critical failure,[3]: 128, 137  and Kidder said in a 1995 interview that I can't say anything intelligent about that book, except that I learned never to write about a murder case.

He has explored a wide range of topics through his books: House (1985), a "biography" of a couple having their first house built, and the people involved in the project; Among Schoolchildren (1989), set in an elementary-school classroom in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and reflecting on US education through the lives of these 20 children and their teacher (these two books were both bestsellers); and Old Friends (1993), which explored the daily lives and personal growth of a pair of elderly men in a nursing home.

His books have made "Notable" annual lists of The New York Times and received positive praise from critics, in addition to awards.

In fall 2010 Kidder was selected as the first A. M. Rosenthal Writer-in-Residence at the Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.

At the center, he worked with his onetime editor at The Atlantic, Richard Todd, on a book about writing, titled Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction.