Edwin (Ed) Wilson attended Vanderbilt University, the University of Edinburgh, and Yale University, where he received an MFA and the first doctor of fine arts degree awarded by Yale. He taught theatre at Vanderbilt, Yale, and, for more than 30 years, at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He was the author of several original plays and produced multiple Broadway plays and films.

For 22 years, Professor Wilson was the theatre critic of the Wall Street Journal. A long-time member of the New York Drama Critics Circle, he was president of the Circle for several years. He was also on the board of the John Golden Fund and served a term as president of the Theater Development Fund (TDF). He served a number of times on the Tony Nominating Committee and the Pulitzer Prize Drama Jury.

Professor Wilson was the coauthor (with Alvin Goldfarb and Megan Geigner) of the three most widely used college theatre textbooks in the United States: Living Theatre, Theatre: The Lively Art, and The Theatre Experience.

Professor Wilson passed away in December 2023.