Peter Martin (professor)


Peter Martin is an American scholar of English literature. He has been a professor at Miami University, the College of William & Mary, and Principia College. For several years, he was a historian for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
He has written several books on historical and biographical topics, including Samuel Johnson: A Biography and A Life of James Boswell. He has also written about Edmond Malone, gardens and gardening in Williamsburg and Colonial Virginia, and 'the dictionary wars' in American lexicography.
Martin was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and educated there and in the United States. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Syracuse University. For much of his research and early work he was mentored by Maynard Mack of Yale University. He has lived in Bury, West Sussex since 1972, which is the setting for A Dog Called Perth, his account of his beloved pet beagle.