John Frederick Hamlin was born on February 12, 1879, in Bangor, Maine, to John and Jane Hamlin. His father was a ship carpenter. Hamlin graduated from Bates College in 1902 and settled in Lexington, Massachusetts. He earned a living as a teacher. He married Mildred R. Foss on November 10, 1906, and their daughter Joan was born around 1920. They moved to Leicester, Massachusetts, sometime before 1910, and Hamlin became the principal of Leicester Academy. They moved to Haworth, New Jersey, in the 1910s, and Hamlin worked for the American Cotton Oil Company. He moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, around 1940 and worked as professor of English at the Florida Military Academy. He died in St. Petersburg on February 18, 1945.