Wit (Author Biography)

Author Biography

Margaret Edson, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Wit, was born in Washington, D.C., on July 4, 1961. Her mother, a medical social worker, and her father, a newspaper columnist, both encouraged Edson’s leanings toward drama, which she pursued throughout high school.

Edson went to Smith College, where she majored in Renaissance history and graduated magna cum laude. Undecided about a career, Edson decided to travel for a few years. She first went to Iowa City and sold hotdogs during the day and waited tables at a bar at night. Her next stop was Rome, where she spent a year painting the walls of a contemplative, French Dominican convent. Upon returning to Washington, D.C., Edson sold ice cream.

In 1985, Edson became a clerk on a cancer and AIDS ward at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. In an article by Susan Lowell Butler in USA Today, Edson says, “I learned so much there. The nurses really wanted me to help make things run smoothly, so they taught me a lot. ... I observed the people there, the patients and families, coping with cancer. I learned about character and about courage.” She worked at the hospital for only one year, but the memories were to linger, ultimately compelling her to write the play Wit.

After leaving the hospital, Edson took on various other positions, including a job at a bike shop. It was during this time, the summer of 1991, that Edson wrote her play. She then sent the play out to every theater in the country, Edson says, and they all rejected it, except for the South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California. After several edits, the play celebrated its world premiere in California in 1995.

In the meantime, Edson entered Georgetown University, eventually earning a master’s degree in literature. At first she thought she would go on to earn a doctorate in literature and eventually pursue an academic career. But while in graduate school, Edson worked in the District of Columbia’s public school system as a volunteer teacher, and it was here that she found her passion.

In the Madison Repertory Theatre’s Audience Guide, there is a little side story about Edson that states,“By the time she came to write her thesis [for her master’s degree], she knew academe was not for her. Her thesis project, on the use of poetry to teach reading, concluded with an oral defense in which Edson performed a Queen Latifa rap number before her faculty review panel.” Today Edson is a kindergarten teacher at Centennial Place Elementary School in Atlanta, Georgia, where she uses music and poetry to teach children to read.