Early life-
James Hurst grew up in North Carolina on a coastal farm, the present site of US Marine Corps. Camp LeJeune.

After attending North Carolina State College and serving in the United States Army during World War II, he studied singing and acting at the renowned Juilliard School of Music in New York. Hoping for a career in opera, he went to Italy for additional study. After three years he abandoned his musical ambitions. Upon return to the States in 1951, he began a 34-year career in the international department of a large New York City Bank.

Writing career-
During his early years at the bank, he wrote a play and short stories, some of which were published in small literary magazines. "The Scarlet Ibis" first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in the July, 1960 issue and won the "Atlantic First" award that year. Quickly recognized by literary critics, the story appears in collections and virtually every high-school literature textbook published in the United States. When asked about the meaning of the story, Hurst answered: "I hesitate to respond, since authors seldom understand what they write. That is why we have critics. I venture to say, however, that it comments on the tenacity and the splendor of the human spirit." A key passage from the story is the following sentence: “I did not know then that pride is a wonderful, terrible, thing, a seed that bears two vines, life and death.”