James Schuyler was born in Chicago on 9 November 1923. He attended Bethany College of West Virginia from 1941 to 1943. In the late 40s he moved to New York City where he worked for NBC and befriended W. H. Auden. He later moved to Italy, where he lived in Auden's rented apartment and worked as his secretary. He attended the University of Florence between 1947 and 1948. He returned to the United States afterwards, and settled in New York City, where he lived with John Ashbery and Frank O'Hara. On 12 April 1991, he died following a stroke.