Edmund Wilson (May 8, 1895 - June 12 1972) was an American writer, noted chiefly for his literary criticism. He was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, and educated at Princeton. He began his writing career as a reporter for the New York Sun, and served in the army during the First World War. He was the managing editor of Vanity Fair in 1920 and 1921, and later served on the staffs of the New Republic and The New Yorker.
Wilson was interested in modern culture as a whole, and many of his writings go beyond the realm of pure literary criticism. In his book To the Finland Station, he studied the course of European socialism, culminating in the arrival of Lenin at the Finland Station of Saint Petersburg to lead the Bolshevik Revolution. Wilson's early works are heavily influenced by the ideas of Freud and Marx, reflecting his deep interest in their work.
He was a close friend of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and edited his final book for posthumous publication.
Wilson's critical works help foster public appreciation for U.S. novelists Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, William Faulkner, and Fitzgerald.