Richard Poirier (born Gloucester, Massachusetts, September 9, 1925, died New York City, August 15, 2009) was an American literary critic.
He graduated from Amherst College, Yale University, and Harvard University, and also studied under the literary critic F. R. Leavis at Downing College, Cambridge, on a Fulbright Scholarship.
[1][2] He co-founded the Library of America, and served as chairman of its board.
He was the Marius Bewley Professor of American and English Literature at Rutgers University.
In 1968, he signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.