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Scott Peeples

Author & Professor of English

Scott Peeples

Scott Peeples has taught American literature and writing at the College of Charleston since 1996; he served as Chair of the English Department from 2012 to 2017. His books include The Afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe (2004), The Man of the Crowd: Edgar Allan Poe and the City (2020), and the forthcoming How Many Roads: A Life of Bob Dylan (2026). He has published essays on American literature and culture in numerous collections, journals, and magazines, including J19, Southern Cultures, ESQ, Arizona Quarterly, Salon, and The Millions. He is also a past president of the Poe Studies Association and the Southeastern American Studies Association.

Books

Featured Work

The Afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe

The Afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe

A study of the controversy-filled scholarship on Poe from the time of his death to the present. Controversies abound in studies of Edgar Allan Poe. From the time of his death well into the twentieth century, partisans debated the issue of his character: was he an alcoholic? drug addict? pathological liar? necrophile? In the1920s and […]

The Man of the Crowd: Edgar Allan Poe and the City 

The Man of the Crowd: Edgar Allan Poe and the City 

How four American cities shaped Poe’s life and writings Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) changed residences about once a year throughout his life. Driven by a desire for literary success and the pressures of supporting his family, Poe sought work in American magazines, living in the cities that produced them. Scott Peeples chronicles Poe’s rootless life […]

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