The Widening Stain

This comic mystery set in the library of a university that bears a remarkable resemblance to Cornell was a big hit in 1942, going into three printings within a month of publication. The author was Morris Bishop, professor of French literature and provost at Cornell, who hid his identity behind the pseudonym W. Bolingbroke Johnson. There is much bibliographic lore as well as a sufficient amount of genteel gore as a professor with a fondness for limericks looks into a murder in the library stacks.