They grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a north-central portion of Brooklyn, until his family moved in 1951 to their homestead in Los Angeles, where he attended Dorsey High School.
[3] In 1955, he attended Los Angeles City College, initially enrolling in pre-med courses and later literature, graduating in 1959 with an associate of arts degree.
[1] He taught English at Contra Costa College in San Pablo, California and his poems appeared in small magazines.
With Brooks behind him, his book was published by the University of Pittsburgh and reviewed in Time in 1970 with a cover essay by Ralph Ellison.
[5] He joined the English faculty at Brown University, where he taught literature courses and poetry workshops to undergraduates.
He also taught Michael Gizzi, Bob Kessler, Julia Thacker, and others who went on to write, teach, or serve the arts in other ways.
[6][failed verification] In 1993, Nathan A. Scott wrote in the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics that "Harper has created a body of work which, though it has won much respect and admiration, deserves to be far more widely known than it is.
[1] Harper had two children who died at birth, which inspired several of his early poems, including the famous "Nightmare Begins Responsibility.
[8] Harper often wrote about his wife, Shirley (commonly referred to as "Shirl"), their children, and their ancestors, as well as friends and various black historical and cultural figures.
In a 2009 interview, he commented on the need for public rhetoric, noting that people had trouble with President Barack Obama because he spoke about consequential things when most were used to "sound bites".