A leading American critic and historian, Reynolds was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on August 30, 1948. Mr. Reynolds was born and raised in Barrington, Rhode Island. He earned his BA at Amherst College and his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. His wife, whose professional name is Suzanne Nalbantian, is a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the C. W. Post Campus of Long Island University. Reynolds and his wife, Suzanne, live on Long Island. Their daughter, the journalist Aline Reynolds, graduated magna cum laude from Barnard College and received her MS from the Columbia School of Journalism in 2009.

David S. Reynolds is Professor of English and American Studies at the Graduate Center and Baruch College of the City University of New York. Reynolds' most celebrated books, Waking Giant, John Brown, Abolitionist, Walt Whitman's America,and Beneath the American Renaissance explore the cultural, political, and social backgrounds of major 19th-century Americans.