Barbara Merrihew Perkins was born in
San Francisco,
California, on May 22, 1905. In 1938, she married J. R. de la Torre Bueno, scholar and editor, and divorced around 1943. She mainly worked in the publishing business. From 1950 to 1958, she was a publicity manager for the
Cambridge University Press. In 1958, she married
George Gamow. From 1958 to 1970, Barbara Gamow served as the editor and translator of her husband. She also wrote verse for some of her husband's books, including
Faust; Eine Historie. Her circle of friends included
E. E. Cummings and his wife Marion Morehouse, Edward Niles Hooker,
Albert Guerard,
Stan Brakhage,
John Larson,
Evelyn Hooker, Bernard Friedlander, Raymong Peckham Holden,
James Broughton,
Charles Norman,
Eda Lord,
Sybille Bedford, Garner James, and
Morgan Shepard. She died in December 1975 and is buried at Green Mountain Cemetery,
Boulder, Colorado. ==Legacy==