Carson was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on June 21, 1950. One of Carson's high school teachers knew Greek and offered to teach it to her. Carson gladly accepted and embarked on what has become a lifelong study of the classics (Greek and Roman literature). After earning her doctoral degree from the University of Toronto in 1980, Carson taught classics at Princeton University (1980-1987). During the same time, she published her first book, Eros the Bittersweet: An Essay (1986), which expanded upon her doctoral dissertation. The book was also the first of many that was modeled after classical Greek literature. Over the next decade, Carson published three more books: Short Talks (1992); Plainwater: Essays and Poetry (1995); and Glass, Irony, and God (1995). However, it was the publication of Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse (1998)—a book that re-cast the legend of Hercules in modern time—which brought Carson and her unique...