R. F. Brissenden was born at Wentworthville, New South Wales, and was educated at Cowra High School and the Universities of Sydney and Leeds. Leaving a tutorship at the University of Melbourne in 1953, he spent the rest of his academic career in Canberra at the Canberra University College (later the Australian National University).
Brissenden built a strong reputation as a critic and commentator on Australian and American literature and was highly regarded as a scholar of eighteenth century literature. In the 1960s he was encouraged by others to resume the writing of poetry he had abandoned as an undergraduate, publishing his first collection Winter Matins in 1971. Several books of poetry followed, displaying his strong attraction to the sea and his concern for conservationist issues.
Brissenden was a member of the Literature Board of the Australia Council and the Academy of the Humanities and edited several publications, including Meanjin (1959-64). In 1982 he was made AO for his services to literature. He retired in 1985 due to the onset of Parkinson's disease, but continued to write, pursuing his long-held interest in crime fiction. Two volumes of a planned trilogy were published before his death in 1991.
Brissenden is the brother of Alan Brissenden and father of Michael Brissenden.
