Peter, Emmett B., Jr., 1919-1994

Journalist and author. Emmett B. Peter, Jr. was born in Leesburg, Florida, on November 19, 1919. He studied journalism and history at Emory University before transferring to Stetson University in Deland to study English literature and political science. He quit school in his junior year to become editor of the Eustis Lake Region News, which he bought in 1940 and published until his enlistment in the Air Force in 1942.

Peter continued his career in journalism in 1947 as editor and co-publisher of the Lake County Citizen and the Leesburg Leader. Over the next forty years, he held various editorial and columnist positions for several publications, including the Tampa Tribune, the Lakeland Ledger, the Detroit Free Press, the Orlando Sentinel, and the Daily Commercial in Leesburg. He was a charter member of the Florida Society of Editors and twice served as its president.

Peter was the author of several "New Republic" articles pertaining to racism and rural poverty, a pictorial history of Lake County, and short stories in "Florida Review," "Other Voices," and "Carolina Quarterly." As a longtime researcher and biographer of James Branch Cabell, he was also the author of several published and unpublished writings on the Southern writer. He died June 22, 1994.

From the guide to the Emmett Peter, Jr. Papers, 1895-1993, 1954-1969, (Special and Area Studies Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida)