Henry Braun was born in Olean, New York, in 1930 and grew up in Buffalo. He received his B.A. in French Literature from Brandeis University, spent a year in France on a Fulbright Scholarship, and returned to Brandeis for his M.A. He then spent several years in Boston as a social worker and a museum guide. He has taught at Boston University and at the University of Maine. At present he is Assistant Professor of English at Temple University in Philadelphia, where he lives with his wife, Joan, and their two daughters. During the summer, he and his family live on an isolated farm in the mountains of northwestern Maine.