Herbert S. Weil Jr. was born January 3, 1933, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He attended Yale University in 1950-1951 before obtaining an B.A. from Tulane University of Louisiana in 1954. The following year he did graduate study at the University of Paris and the University of Lille. Weil received his M.A. in 1961 and PHD in 1964 from Stanford University. In 1961 he married Judith Richardson, an English Professor.

Dr. Weil taught English at the University of Connecticut from 1962-1978. In 1978 he joined the University of Manitoba as head of the English Department. His wife joined the English Department in 1980. Both Herbert & Judith Weil were made senior scholars upon their retirement in 2002.

Dr. Weil has published extensively with articles on Shakespeare's plays, Sophocles, modern drama, Alice Munro and Carol Shields. He is the author of Reading Writing and Rewriting, (Lippincott, 1964); Discussions of Shakespeare's Romantic Comedy, (Heath, 1966) and The Cambridge Edition of Henry IV Part One, with Judith Weil in 1997.