His father, Peterfield Trent, also became a doctor and served as a surgeon for the Confederate States Army during the war.

In 1880 he began studying at the University of Virginia, where his fellow students included Woodrow Wilson and Oscar W. Underwood.

Both groups were developed to build a stronger collection of history documents and books in the South.

There he turned his attention to the study of Daniel Defoe and to English history and literature of the 1680 to 1730 period.

He edited Robinson Crusoe and wrote a biography and bibliography of Defoe in ten volumes (in manuscript to 1916).

He collaborated in numerous literary undertakings, for example Colonial Prose and Poetry, editions of Shakespeare and Thackeray and the Cambridge History of American Literature.