Born on June 27, 1926, in Baltimore, Maryland, Francis Russell O'Hara was the first of Katherine Broderick O'Hara and Russell J. O'Hara's three children. In 1927, the family moved to Massachusetts, where Frank O'Hara grew up and attendedSt. John's High School in Worcester, and studied piano at the New England Conservatory. From 1944 to 1946, O'Hara served in the U.S. Navy as a sonar man on the destroyer USS Nicholas. Upon completing his military service, O'Hara attendedHarvard College to study music before changing his major to English. Here, O'Hara met fellow poet John Ashbery who, with O'Hara, Kenneth Koch, and James Schuyler, founded what would later be dubbed the "New York School" of poets.

After receiving a master's degree in 1951 from the University ofMichigan at Ann Arbor, O'Hara moved to New York City. There, he soon found a job at the front desk of the Museum ofModern Art. In 1952, O'Hara's...