William Edmund Barrett was born in New York City. He published his first poem at age 15. In 1916, he moved with his family to Denver, Colorado. Barrett attended Manhattan College. In 1923, he became the Rocky Mountain advertising manager for Westinghouse. In 1925 he married Christine M. Rollman, with whom he had two children. In 1929 he left Westinghouse to become a writer. Starting in 1941, he worked as an aeronautics consultant with the Denver Public Library. He was a member of PEN, the Authors League of America, the National Press Club of Washington, D.C., and the Colorado Authors League.