Matthew Pearl graduated from University School of Nova Southeastern University (NSU). He was then educated at Harvard College and Yale Law School and has taught writing and literature at Emerson College and Harvard University. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The Dante Club was published in 2003. His second novel, a historical thriller about the death of Edgar Allan Poe called The Poe Shadow, was published by Random House in the United States on May 23, 2006 and has also been a New York Times Bestseller and an International Bestseller. His third novel The Last Dickens was released in the United States on March 17, 2009.

Pearl has also written op-ed articles on literature and culture for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Boston Globe.