Twenty-five years ago he was a radical activist, a skinhead, and the editor of two hate-filled, extremist magazines. Today, Joseph Pearce is the author of a number of critically acclaimed, best-selling biographies of great 19th and 20th-century Christian authors. He is also the co-founder and co-editor of an international magazine dedicated to reclaiming Catholic culture, and is writer-in-residence and associate professor of literature at Ave Maria University in Florida.  He is also Series Editor of the Ignatius Critical Editions and Editor-In-Chief of Sapientia Press.

Pearce has hosted two 13-part television series about Shakespeare on EWTN, the largest religious TV network in the world...

The internationally acclaimed author of many books, which include bestsellers such as The Quest for Shakespeare, Tolkien: Man and Myth, The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde, C. S. Lewis and The Catholic Church, Literary Converts, Wisdom and Innocence: A Life of G.K. Chesterton, and Old Thunder:  A Life of Hilaire Belloc, Joseph Pearce is a world-recognized biographer of modern Christian literary figures.  Pearce’s books have been published and translated into Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch and Polish.

Pearce converted to the Catholic faith in 1989 as a result of “becoming friends” with several 20th-century literary figures he researched who had been Christians, and ultimately converts to Catholicism – particularly G.K. Chesterton.  As a younger “extremely anti-Catholic” man, Pearce had opposed Pope John Paul II’s visit to England.  His earlier viewpoint gradually shifted as he learned more about the writings and beliefs of the literary converts he would eventually profile.

A native of England, Pearce relocated to the United States in 2001 to serve at Ave Maria University.  He is also contributing writer to a number of newspapers and magazines in the United Kingdom, France, the U.S.A, Canada and South America.

An accomplished tutor, teacher and speaker, Pearce has participated and lectured at a wide variety of international and literary events at major colleges and universities in the U.S., Canada, Britain, Europe, Africa and South America.  He is also a regular guest on national and international television and radio programs, and has served as consultant for film documentaries on J.R.R. Tolkien and Alexander Solzhenitsyn.