Peggram (Reed Edwin) is born in Dorchester.

Reed Peggram grows up in Dorchester, graduates from Boston Latin School and Harvard College with a degree in Romance languages and literature. He goes on to study at Columbia University, the University of Paris, and the University of Copenhagen, and forms a close relationship with Danish scholar Gerdh Hauptmann. Both are subsequently captured by the Nazis, imprisoned in German and Italian prison camps, and escape, but suffer nervous breakdowns from their harsh treatment. Peggram subsequently returns to the U.S. and works as a translator and a teacher. He dies in in Dorchester on April 20, 1982.