Robert Peel (historian)
American writer (1909-1992)
Robert Arthur Peel (May 6, 1909 – January 8, 1992) was an historian and writer on religious and ecumenical topics, especially The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Christian Science. As a Christian Scientist for over 70 years, Peel wrote editorials for the Christian Science Monitor, a publication owned by the Church of Christ, Scientist. He was also a counsellor for the church's Committee on Publication. Peel is best known for his three-volume biography, Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Discovery (1966), Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Trial (1971), and Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority (1977).
Early life and education
Born in London to Anne Susannah Monk, a Christian Scientist, and Arthur James Peel, Peel moved to Boston with his parents and sister, Doris (1907–1990), in or around 1921. He was educated at the Boston Latin School, and from 1927 studied English literature at Harvard University, graduating in 1931. His undergraduate honors thesis, The Creed of a Victorian Pagan, a study of English novelist and poet George Meredith, was published by the university that year. T. S. Eliot, who taught at Harvard, published Peel's undergraduate essay on Virginia Woolf in The Criterion, a British literary magazine. After graduating, Peel taught history and literature at Harvard and began his graduate studies. In 1935 he submitted a proposal for a doctorate on Mary Baker Eddy, but it was rejected.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7348803. VIAF identifies the subject as 114868430. The Library of Congress control number is n50008765. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1909, 1992, 1966 and 1971.
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This entry incorporates text from “Robert Peel (historian)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.