Peter Martin (born 1940) 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.
Books in order of publication:
British and American Gardens in the Eighteenth Century: Eighteen Illustrated Essays – 1984
Pursuing innocent pleasures : the gardening world of Alexander Pope – 1984
The Pleasure Gardens of Virginia: From Jamestown to Jefferson – 1991
Edmond Malone, Shakespearean scholar : a literary biography – 1995
A life of James Boswell – 1999
A Dog Called Perth: The True Story of a Beagle – 2001
The Essential Boswell: Selections from the Writings of James Boswell – 2003
Samuel Johnson: A Biography – 2008
Samuel Johnson: Selected Writing – 2009
The Dictionary Wars: The American Fight over the English Language – 2019
Oak Lawn Library Friends 