William P. (William Peterfield) Trent

author

William P. (William Peterfield) Trent

1862–1939

Remembered as a leading literary historian of the American South, this scholar and critic helped bring Southern writing into wider academic conversation. He taught for decades at Columbia University and wrote on figures ranging from William Gilmore Simms to Edgar Allan Poe.

1 Audiobook

A History of the United States

A History of the United States

by Charles Kendall Adams, William P. (William Peterfield) Trent

About the author

Born in Richmond, Virginia, on November 10, 1862, William Peterfield Trent became an influential American literary scholar, critic, and teacher. He studied at the University of Virginia and Johns Hopkins, and early in his career taught at the University of the South in Tennessee before joining Columbia University, where he spent much of his professional life.

Trent was especially known for his work on American literature and for taking Southern writers seriously at a time when that field was still being defined. His books and essays included studies of authors such as William Gilmore Simms and Edgar Allan Poe, and he also contributed to major literary reference works and histories.

He died in 1939, leaving behind a reputation as a careful scholar with a major role in shaping the study of American literary history.