Richard Poirier, an American literary and cultural critic, professor of literature, and founder of was born September 9, 1925 in Gloucester Massachusetts. Poirier served in the Army during World War II, and upon returning from combat enrolled in Amherst College where he earned his B.A. He continued his studies in literature first at Yale where he earned his MA, and later at Harvard where he received a PhD in 1960.

Poirier taught at Harvard from 1958-1963, but he spent the majority academic career at Rutgers University where he was a prominent member and sometimes Chair of the English Department from 1963-2002.

Richard Poirier was not only a highly regarded scholar and teacher, but a well-respected editor and publisher as well. He co-founded the Library of America publishing venture in 1979. The Library of America is a non-profit publisher focused on publishing and preserving American poetry, fiction, and essays, often producing volumes of collected works that published pieces that would otherwise be out of print. He also co-founded out of what he perceived to be a dearth of serious criticism on American literature and culture that engaged both academics and non-academics.

Poirier regularly contributed essays and reviews to publications such as The Partisan Review (which he edited from 1963-1973), The New York Review of Books, and The London Review of Books. He authored a number of books, including works on Henry James, Robert Frost, and Ralph Waldo Emerson and collections of criticism such as

Richard Poirier died in his Manhattan home on August 15, 2009.