George D. Whitmore (1945-1989) was a poet, playwright, critic, novelist, and freelance writer, whose lifetime of publishing began with his essays appearing in school literary magazines and ended with his major volume on the AIDS epidemic. He was born in Denver, Colorado, on September 27, 1945, to Lowell and Irene Davis Whitmore. Raised in Denver, he received a BA degree in English and Theatre from MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1967. Whitmore was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship and pursued graduate studies in the Theatre Department at Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont. He remained at the college from 1967 to 1968, after which he moved to New York.