He graduated from Boston Latin School in 1930 and attended Harvard College, where he received an A.B.

[1] It was reissued in a 40th anniversary edition, with an audio compact disc to aid in the understanding of the recorded renditions discussed in the text.

[1] He argued strongly for a complete divide between the non-literate authors of the Homeric epics and the scribes who later wrote them down.

[4] Lord studied and made field recordings of South-Slavic heroic epics sung to the gusle, most notable of poets he worked with was Avdo Međedović.

His wife, Mary Louise Lord née Carlson, taught classics at Connecticut College; they had two children.