At age nine, Nack experienced a traumatic brain injury falling down a flight of stairs.
[2] Nack attended the New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb in Manhattan from 1818 until 1823.
One of Nack's poems, The Blue-Eyed Maid, got the attention of Abraham Asten, clerk of the city and county of New York.
Asten gave Nack a job in the clerk's office where James became an assistant.
Nack was able to spend long periods of time reading in Asten's personal library.