Ralph Noel Maud was born on December 24, 1928, in Keighley, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom.
He was a Canadian literary scholar, writer, editor, and educator. He attended Harvard University (Ph.D., 1958). As one of the founding English professors at Simon Fraser University in 1965, he became increasingly interested in Pacific Northwest Aboriginal culture, taught Indian Oral Tradition and founded the Charles Olson Literary Society. He was an authority on the work of Dylan Thomas, Charles Olson and the ethnographers of the Pacific Northwest. Maud served as editor for several anthologies published by Talonbooks in Vancouver, British Columbia, e.g., "The Salish People: The Local Contribution of Charles Hill-Tout" (1978), "The Chilliwacks and Their Neighbors" (1987), "Transmission Difficulties: Franz Boas and Tsimshian Mythology" (2000), "Charles Olson at the Harbor" (2008), and "Muthologos: Lectures and Interviews, Revised Second Edition (by Charles Olson)" (2010). He was also the author of the books "A Guide to B.C. Indian Myth and Legend" (1982), “Charles Olson Reading: A Biography” (1996), and "The Porcupine Hunter and Other Stories" (1993). In 1966, Maud was awarded Guggenheim Fellowship for Humanities, U.S. & Canada.
He died on December 8, 2014, in British Columbia.