Stavely is a writer and scholar whose interest in the Puritan influence on American and English culture has resulted in a number of critically-esteemed books and articles. He has been a Guggenheim and American Council of Learned Societies fellow and a winner of the Modern Language Association Prize for Independent Scholars. He holds a B. A. and a Ph. D. in English Literature from Yale University and a Master of Library Science from Simmons College. He taught at Boston University, Boston College, and Ohio State University and worked for many years as a librarian in Massachusetts public libraries, retiring in 2008 as director of the Fall River Public Library. His earlier published works include The Politics of Milton’s Prose Style (Yale University Press, 1975), Family Man (Contemporary Books, 1978), and Puritan Legacies: Paradise Lost and the New England Tradition (Cornell University Press, 1987, pbk. 1990).