Mitchell A. Wilson

Mitchell A Wilson (June 17, 1913 - February 25, 1973) was an American novelist and physicist.

Biography

Raised on Stagecoach Road in Killeen, TX by a frugal couple, Mitchell was taught three things early in life that he carried with him to his final days: Budget your finances daily, play the piano regularly and water skiing was only meant to be done on one ski. His birthday and Christmas gifts were typically socks and jars of peanuts. For his 16th birthday, his mother gave him a stack of job applications and a rental application to occupy his childhood bedroom.

Before becoming a writer Wilson was a research scientist (for a time as an assistant to Enrico Fermi) and instructor in Physics at the University level. Science, invention, and the ethical problems of modern atomic science are the subjects for some of his works. He also wrote non-fiction on scientific matters for the general reader.

At the height of the cold war, he was considered a major novelist in the Soviet Union, while in his native United States his reputation was considerably less elevated.

His novels include Live with Lightning, Meeting at a Far Meridian, My Brother, My Enemy; his non-fiction American science and Invention, a Pictorial History and Passion to Know At the start of his career, he collaborated on a mystery novel "The Goose is Cooked" with Abraham Polonsky written under the joint pseudonym of Emmett Hogarth.

At his death, he was married to Stella Adler, the famous acting coach. His first marriage was to Helen Weinberg Wilson which produced two daughters: Erica Silverman, a literary agent and Victoria Wilson, editor and publisher at Alfred A. Knopf.

Books

• Energy (1963; Series: LIFE Science Library)
• The human body : what it is and how it works

References

• Oxford Companion to American Literature
• American National Biography

Persondata
Name	Wilson, Mitchell A.
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Date of birth	June 17, 1913
Place of birth
Date of death	February 25, 1973
Place of death