The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Trent, William Peterfield
TRENT, William Peterfield, American
man of letters: b. Richmond, Va., 10 Nov.
1862. After study at the University of
Virginia and at Johns Hopkins University, he
was professor of English in the University of
the South (1888-1900) and dean of its academic
department (1894-1900). From 1892 to 1900
he was editor of the Sewanee Review, and
since 1 July 1900 has been professor of English
literature at Columbia University. He has
published ‘Life of William Gilmore Simms’
(1892); ‘English Culture in Virginia’ (1889);
‘Southern Statesmen of the Old Regime’
(1897); ‘Robert E. Lee’ (1899); ‘John Milton’
(1899); ‘The Authority of Criticism’
(1899); ‘War and Civilization’ (1901); ‘The
Progress of the United States in the Century’
(1901); ‘A History of American Literature
1807-1865’ (1903): ‘Greatness in Literature
and Other Literary Addresses’ (1905);
‘Longfellow and other Papers’ (1910); ‘Defoe —
How to Know Him’ (1916), etc. He has also
edited ‘Select Poems of Milton’ (1895);
‘Essays of Macaulay’ (1897); ‘Poems and Tales
of Edgar Allan Poe’ (1898); ‘Balzac's
Comédie Humaine’ (1900); ‘Southern Writers,
Selections in Prose and Verse’ (1905), and
has collaborated in numerous literary
undertakings, e.g., ‘Colonial Prose and Poetry,’
editions of Shakespeare and Thackeray and
the ‘Cambridge History of American Literature.’
Since 1905 his chief work has lain in
English history and literature 1680-1730, with
special attention to Defoe, of whom he has
written a biography and bibliography in 10
volumes still in manuscript.