author
Edmund Lester Pearson
1880–1937
A sharp, witty early master of true crime, he brought a librarian’s eye for detail and a storyteller’s sense of drama to famous murder cases. He is especially remembered for writing about the Lizzie Borden case and helping shape true crime as a literary genre.
4 Audiobooks
Theodore Roosevelt
by Edmund Lester Pearson
The librarian at play
by Edmund Lester Pearson
The Voyage of the Hoppergrass
by Edmund Lester Pearson
The Believing Years
by Edmund Lester Pearson
About the author
Born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1880, Edmund Lester Pearson was an American librarian, editor, and writer. He studied at Harvard College and the New York State Library School, then worked at places including the Library of Congress, the public library in Washington, D.C., and later the New York Public Library.
Pearson became known for blending careful research with a lively, often dryly humorous style. Alongside essays and columns on books and literary life, he wrote influential crime books such as Studies in Murder, More Studies in Murder, and The Trial of Lizzie Borden. His work helped bring true crime to a wider audience by treating real cases with both historical curiosity and literary flair.
He also wrote affectionately and amusingly about libraries, librarians, and unusual books, which makes his work interesting beyond crime writing alone. He died in New York City in 1937, but he remains an important early voice in American true crime and literary nonfiction.