Mitchell A. Wilson

Mitchell A. Wilson (July 17, 1914 - February 25, 1973) was an American novelist and physicist.

Life and career

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, and 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 the time of his death, Wilson was married to acting coach Stella Adler. 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