J.P. Wearing

Peter Wearing was born and raised in England, spending his childhood in the then small village of Pelsall. He attended Cannock Grammar School where he became Head Boy and developed his love of English literature and the theatre, inspired by the teaching of Dr Peter Happé and Mr T.E. Jones. He read English Literature at the University of Wales, Swansea (then the University College of Swansea), and graduated with a B.A. honors (magna cum laude) degree in 1967. He studied for and obtained an M.A. at the University of Saskatchewan in 1968, before returning to Swansea to embark on a Ph.D. degree under the supervision of Professor Cecil Price. His dissertation was on the life and work of Sir Arthur Pinero, the Victorian and early twentieth-century dramatist.

In 1971 he moved to the University of Alberta where he was an Izaac Walton Killam Post-doctoral Fellow in the Department of English. While there he and colleague L.W. Conolly founded the journal, Nineteenth Century Theatre Research which he edited until 1986. In 1974 he joined the Department of English at the University of Arizona where he taught for twenty-five years, specializing in Shakespeare and modern drama. Among his honors have been a Guggenheim Fellowship and a four-year research grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for his work on the London theatre. He has been Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Arizona since 1999.

In 1999 Peter moved to Lynn Haven, Florida, to enjoy what turned out to be a very active "retirement." In addition to writing several books, he sang with several local choirs, including the Emerald Coast Chorale, and the Pro Arte Chorale of Northwest Florida. In 2009, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia.