Yvonne Noble was born on February 6, 1935, in Pittsburgh.[1] She obtained her BA from Colby College in 1956, before starting her graduate studies at Yale University.[1]
After obtaining her MA in 1957, Noble worked at the Yale University Library as an editorial assistant for The Papers of Benjamin Franklin from 1957 to 1958, as well as a research assistant at Library Company of Philadelphia (1959–1960).[1] She was the editor of a 1964 volume of Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack annual issues, as well as a subsequent second edition published in 1965.[1] She eventually obtained her PhD in 1966.[1]
Noble originally worked at the University of Pennsylvania as an English instructor starting in 1962, before being promoted to assistant professor in 1966.[1] In 1967, she moved to the University of Illinois as assistant professor of English, and she was promoted to associate professor in 1970.[1]
Noble was editor of John Gay: The Beggar's Opera (1966).[1] In 1970,[2] she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship "for a study of the imaginative influence of Paradise Lost upon certain major 18th century writers".[1] She also co-founded the Women's Studies Group 1558–1837.[3][4] She later edited another volume on The Beggar's Opera, Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Beggar's Opera: A Collection of Critical Essays, which was published by Prentice Hall in 1975.[5] She was a member of the Modern Language Association.[6]
Originally a native of "a small town [...] four miles from Clairton, Pennsylvania", she later moved to England with her husband and two children.[3]
