John Lawrence Sharpe, a South Carolinian, graduated from Wofford College with a degree in English and foreign languages and then entered Duke University where he received a BD degree in Greek New Testament language studies. For the first year of his graduate work he was at St. Mary's College of St. Andrews University, Scotland, before returning to Duke to complete his PhD where he remained as Curator of Rare Books in Perkins Library for forty years. His research in the history of the book has taken him to libraries in Europe and Egypt. In pursuing his research he has spent sabbaticals at both Cambridge and Oxford.His publications and lectures have included editing and writing about the history of bookmaking and publishing as well as assembling and writing memoirs among which are Early Days and Achievement: The Life of Harry L. Dalton, published by The Pentland Press in Edinburgh in 1986 and Growing Up with Raleigh: Smedes York: Memoirs and Reflections of a Native Son, published in 2014.
