Hightower was born to Loris Denzil and Berta (née McKedy) Hightower in
Sulphur, Oklahoma, where Loris worked as a school principal. Hightower's mother died two years later in 1917, prompting his father to return home to
Salida, Colorado to take up a position as school superintendent. After completing high school, Hightower entered the
University of Colorado Boulder and was a
pre-medical Chemistry major. Hightower was also interested in literature and poetry: in his final year, having discovered Chinese poetry through the translations of
Ezra Pound, he began taking courses in
Chinese. Hightower became friends with writing student
Jean Stafford, and both won fellowships to study
philology for one year at the
University of Heidelberg following graduation in 1936. Hightower attended the
1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin and witnessed
Jesse Owens win his now-famous gold medals. Hightower lost interest in his Philology classes at Heidelberg and spent time in Belgium and Paris, where he briefly attended the
Sorbonne and met
James Joyce, before returning to the US in autumn 1937. His dissertation, a translation and study of the
Han shi waizhuan (Outer Commentary on the Han Book of Songs), was published in 1952. Hightower's first major publication,
Topics in Chinese Literature, was the first large-scale history of Chinese literature in a Western language. ==Selected works==