Daniel Hoffman was born in New York City. He served in the U.S. Army Air Force from 1943 to 1946 and was decorated with the Legion of Merit. He was educated at Columbia University, receiving his B.A. (Phi Beta Kappa) in 1947, his M.A. in 1949, and his Ph.D. in 1956. In 1948 he married Elizabeth McFarland, and they have two children.

Among the schools Hoffman has taught at are Columbia University and Swarthmore College; he is currently poet-in-residence and professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to these teaching positions, he has also been a visiting professor of American literature at the Faculte des Lettres in Dijon, France, in 1956-1957; a fellow at the Indiana School of Letters in 1959; a George Elliston Lecturer in Poetry at the University of Cincinnati in 1964; and a lecturer at the Sixth International School of Yeats Studies in Sligo, Ireland, in...