Louis Mackey (1926-2004) was born in Sidney, Ohio. He received his BA in English from Capital University, before proceeding to Duke University for graduate work in philosophy. Robert E. Cushman of Duke Divinity School became his mentor and eventually facilitated his transfer to Yale, where he completed a dissertation on Kierkegaard. He held professorships at Yale and at Rice before joining the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, where he taught philosophy for thirty-five years. His wide-ranging works include Kierkegaard: A Kind of Poet (1971), Peregrinations of the Word (1997), Fact, Fiction, and Representation (1997), and An Ancient Quarrel Continued (2002). In addition to his work in philosophy and literary criticism, Mackey enjoyed performing music and acting (credits include Slacker [1991 and Waking Life [2001) and served regularly as lay reader at All Saints' Episcopal Church, Austin.
