Marlatt received his bachelor’s degree from DePauw University in 1912, then served as an artillery officer in World War I. He received his master’s and PhD from Boston University in 1922 & 1929. He also studied at Harvard, Oxford, and the University of Berlin. In 1923, he joined the faculty of Boston University; in 1925, he became the first winner of the May Day Poetry Tournament there. In 1938, he became dean of Boston University, but left in 1945 to take a position as professor of philosophy of religion and religious literature at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Texas.
    Marlatt served as associate editor for the American Student Hymnal in 1928, and as curator of the Treasure Room and Hymn Museum at the Interchurch Center in New York City from 1958 to 1962.