James King was born in Springfield, Mass. on 14 June 1942. He received his M.A. in 1969 and Ph.D in 1970 from Princeton University. He was Assistant Professor of English at Loyola College, 1970-71, and from 1971-77 at McMaster University. He became Associate Professor of English at McMaster in 1977 and Professor of English in 1983. He was Chair of the McMaster Association for Eighteenth Century Studies from 1984-88.
He has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada since 1993. King has received several prestigious awards, including the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, 1980-81, and the Killam Research Fellow Award, 1988-90. His scholarly works have gained him the rank of University Professor. He is co-editor of The Letters and Prose Writings of William Cowper, (4 vols., 1979-86) and the author of many biographies. He is also a novelist.
