Edwin Denby was both a poet and one of America's premier dance critics. The son of an American diplomat, Denby was born in Tientsin, China, in 1903. He came to the United States in 1936 to attend Harvard University, then traveled widely before settling in New York and beginning his career as a journalist. He eventually retired from full-time work in order to devote more time to his poetry. Though his permanent residence was in New York, Denby spent much of his time during the summers in Maine, a place to which he retreated to relax and write. It was there that he committed suicide in 1983.

Denby was never a well-known poet, though he was an important figure in the movement known as the New York School and was the friend of such poets as Frank O'Hara and Ted Berrigan. His work received praise from a number of knowledgeable critics, and he was an important influence on younger poets who shared his esthetic.

Denby noted that "as a poet, some days one feels like writing severely classic things, and some days one feels like writing shapeless romantic things."