Hugh Thomas Keenan was born January 16, 1936. He received a BS degree in 1957, an MA in English in 1960, and a BA in classics in 1963 from Memphis State University. He attained a PhD from the University of Tennessee in 1969. He taught high school for several years and in 1968 became a professor at Georgia State College in Atlanta, Georgia.

James Douglas Bruce was born on December 9, 1862, in Staunton, Virginia. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1883, and then studied at the Universities of Berlin and Stassburg from 1886 to 1888. From John Hopkins University, Bruce received his PhD in 1894. He taught Modern Languages at Centre College in Kentucky (1890-1891), English and philology at Bryn Mawr (1891-1900), and English at the University of Tennessee (1900-1923). He was head of the Department of English at the time of his death on February 19, 1923, after suffering a stroke the previous week during a class lecture.

Bruce wrote numerous books, articles, and reviews. He was a member of several societies, including the English Association of Great Britain, Keats-Shelby Society of New York, Delta Kappa Epsilon, American Dialect Society, and International Chaucerian Society.