Edward Edgar Pescott was a teacher, botanist, historian and government pomologist (1917-1937). He also wrote numerous nature books, including Australian Flowers for Australian Gardens (1912), The Native Flowers of Victoria (1938) and, with journalist and naturalist Charles Leslie Barrett (q.v.), Australian Nature Pictures (circa 1920). He made weekly radio broadcasts on native flora from the early 1920s. He was married to Violet Furphy.

In a letter to Victor Kennedy, John Kinmont Moir said of Pescott's Life Story of Joseph Furphy : 'Apart from suggesting its publication, arranging all details, paying for the job & distributing the book I cannot claim any merit.' (qtd. in Arnold, John. An Extraordinary Man: John Kinmont Moir )