Born in 1927 in Rochester, New York, to farmer Chester Frederick and Helen Lawrence Ashbery, John Ashbery grew up on a farm in western New York State near Lake Ontario. He attended Deerfield Academy before taking his B.A. from Harvard, where he was classmates with Frank O'Hara, James Schuyler, and Kenneth Koch, all of whom came to be associated with the New York School of poets. An informal group of writers with an interest in making poetry funnier, more colloquial, and more contemporary, the New York School poets also shared a love of popular culture, studding their poems with images and allusions to movie stars, music, and film. After graduating from Harvard, Ashbery completed an M.A. in English from Columbia University, writing his thesis on Henry Green, a minor English novelist.

Passionate about painting as a teenager, Ashbery cultivated a love for writing and literature...