A controversial figure, Ed Bullins is among the finest and most prolific of contemporary American playwrights. Bullins's name became almost synonymous with black theater during the late 1960s and early 1970s when he also established his fame as one of the leaders of the Black Arts movement on the West Coast.

Not much personal information is available on Bullins, who declines to answer questions about his private life. Edward Bullins was born to Edward Dawson Bullins and Bertha Marie Queen Bullins in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 2 July 1935. His eventful youth spent in the tough neighborhood known as "the Jungle" found its highlights in bootleg whiskey, the street gang "the Jet Cobras," and a close encounter with death owing to a stab wound he received in his throat during a fight. A self-identified "street nigger," Bullins has incorporated these experiences into his work.

In 1952 Bullins dropped out of high school...