Peter Henry Salus is a linguist, computer scientist, historian of technology, author in many fields, and an editor of books and journals.

He has also been executive director of both the USENIX Association and the Sun User Group, and Vice President of the Free Software Foundation.

From 1987 to 1996, he was Managing Editor of the technical journal Computing Systems (MIT Press and the USENIX Association).

[11] Auden and Salus' comments and intentions to write a book on J. R. R. Tolkien were reported by The New Yorker and The Daily Telegraph.

However, Tolkien disapproved of a book on himself and was critical of Auden's reported remarks on his house and Salus' observations on the shape of Middle-earth.