Charles Bohner was born in Wilmington, Delaware, on November 23, 1927, the son of a Presbyterian minister who died while Charles was still young. He grew up in Wilmington and attended public schools there, graduating from P. S. Dupont High School in 1944. He matriculated at Syracuse University, but his undergraduate years were interrupted by wartime service in the U.S. Army.

Upon returning to Syracuse, he majored in English and received his bachelor's degree in 1950, along with many other veterans in the largest class in that university's history.

Bohner went on to do graduate work in English and American literature at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned an M.A. in 1952.

He became an instructor at Syracuse University (1952-1954) while continuing his studies in American literature.

In 1955 he returned to his native state to teach in the English Department of the University of Delaware. In...