William Gibson was born in 1914. He grew up in New York City, in an area called the Bronx. As a child, he loved to read and write and hoped to write a novel. His mother encouraged him to aim high, and with her tutoring, Gibson was able to skip a few grades in school. In the end, however, he did not do very well in school. He disliked science, history, and math classes and was not motivated to excel. His main interest was writing. Gibson won several awards for his writing while in high school, and his classmates predicted that he would one day go to Hollywood and write screenplays.

In addition to The Miracle Worker, Gibson wrote a popular play called Two for the Seesaw. Both of these were performed on Broadway and made into movies. In 1982, Gibson wrote a sequel to The Miracle Worker called Monday after the Miracle. This play depicted Helen’s life as a college student with Annie Sullivan as her tutor and translator. Gibson has also written poetry, fiction, and an autobiographical book called A Mass for the Dead. He now lives in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where he helped found the Berkshire Theater Festival.