Background
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.
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, 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.