Born in Jamaica, British West Indies, Louis Aston Marantz Simpson grew up in the environs of Kingston, Jamaica, where he studied at Munro College, a preparatory school, from 1933 to 1940. His father was a lawyer of Scotch ancestry, and his mother was from a family of Polish Jews who immigrated to the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century. Both his boyhood in Jamaica and his European background become important material for Simpson's poetry.

When Simpson was seventeen, he moved to New York City and entered Columbia University. He was inducted into the U.S. Army as an infantryman in 1943, and he served with the 101st Airborne Division in Europe until 1945, receiving two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star. After the war, he returned to Columbia University, receiving his B.S. degree in 1948, an M.A. in 1950, and a Ph.D. in 1959. He worked as an editor...