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Morris Bishop (1893–1973)

Author of The Middle Ages

33+ Works 1,392 Members 18 Reviews

About the Author

Morris Bishop (1893-1973) was educated & taught for many years at Cornell University. One of the worlds most lucid & knowledgeable commentators on the Middle Ages, he was also a biographer, a translator, & a masterly writer of light verse. (Bowker Author Biography)
Image credit: painting by Alison Mason Kingsbury

Works by Morris Bishop

The Middle Ages (1968) 884 copies
The Widening Stain (1942) 117 copies
A History of Cornell (1962) 33 copies
Petrarch and His World (1963) 20 copies
A Medieval Storybook (1970) — Editor — 20 copies
A Renaissance Storybook (1971) — Editor — 15 copies
A Treasury of British Humor (1942) 12 copies
A Classical Storybook (1970) — Editor — 11 copies

Associated Works

The Misanthrope (1667) — Translator, some editions — 1,584 copies
The Imaginary Invalid (1673) — Translator, some editions — 1,101 copies
The School for Wives (1662) — Translator, some editions — 701 copies
A Doctor in Spite of Himself (1666) — Translator, some editions — 382 copies
The Pretentious Young Ladies (1659) — Translator, some editions — 308 copies
Eight Plays by Molière [Modern Library, 1957] (1957) — Translator — 273 copies
The Horizon Book of the Renaissance (1961) — Contributor — 246 copies
American Wits: An Anthology of Light Verse (2003) — Contributor — 134 copies
Selected sonnets, odes, and letters (1966) — Translator, some editions — 39 copies
We, Robots (2010) — Contributor — 23 copies
Candide and other philosophical tales (1929) — Introduction — 6 copies
The Fireside Treasury of Modern Humor (1963) — Contributor — 5 copies
Love rimes of Petrarch (1980) — Translator, some editions — 3 copies
Letters from Petrarch (1966) — Translator — 2 copies

Tagged

17th century (100) anthology (41) art (42) biography (29) classic (59) classics (65) comedy (112) drama (278) Europe (40) European History (48) fiction (159) France (70) French (278) French drama (16) French language (33) French literature (256) French theatre (18) hardcover (19) history (277) humor (74) in French (22) Italy (21) Kindle (18) literature (106) medieval (75) medieval history (62) Middle Ages (72) Moliere (34) mystery (23) non-fiction (85) own (15) play (100) plays (168) poetry (98) read (28) Renaissance (48) satire (25) theatre (369) to-read (190) unread (21)

Common Knowledge

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Reviews

Two suspicious deaths and a rare-book theft at a university library would normally be the purview of the police, but in this case Gilda Gorham, chief cataloguer at the library, feels compelled to investigate. Normally I am skeptical of amateur sleuths, but Gilda was mostly sensible in her sleuthing. That said, the means by which she got the killer to confess was rather dangerous, and I wasn’t fond of the way that the solution was revealed. The introduction to this book in its American Mystery Classics reprint is really interesting and well worth reading, as is the book if you like mysteries set in an academic environment.… (more)
½
 
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rabbitprincess | 6 other reviews | Feb 28, 2023 |
Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.
 
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fernandie | 6 other reviews | Sep 15, 2022 |
Apologies for this herky-jerky babble. First coffee of the day. Just finished this novel this morning as I couldn't quite do it last night. Had to know how it ended.

W. Bolingbroke Johnson of Rabbit Hash, Kentucky was really Morris Bishop, scholar, historian, essayist and translator. This is the only mystery he wrote, more's the pity. Yes, it's a bit dated (1942) perhaps that's part of why I liked it. You know, this could easily be a period play along the lines of "Good News". It would be a stretch to work in the jitterbug in lieu of the Varsity Drag as the story hardly leaves the library. Hmm. Maybe some clever playwright could make it into a murder mystery musical. Singing in the stacks like prisoners in Jailhouse Rock? I can see it. It sure feels like a play.
The story takes place in a university library (presumably Cornell; Bishop was the university historian). The central character is a plucky librarian, Gilda Gorham. Gilda is a keen observer, clever, and gutsy. Despite some undertones of sexism (the assumption at the end is she must marry a professor--it seems inevitable and almost arbitrary, as though she could just pull a name from a jar and be satisfied with the result) Two professors are found dead and a cherished manuscript is stolen. Gilda is no wilting hothouse flower. She solves the murders and confronts the killer with an admirable level of confidence.

The mystery withholds much information, so it's unlikely that one could unravel the whodunnit or at least the underlying motive before it is revealed. The motive is a bit of a surprise; can't say I've run across this explanation before. It's a good one. Would it hold up in modern times? I wonder.
One of the satellite professors in Gilda's world is a limerick fancier, so the book is dusted with clever limericks-- a perk if you like them and these are playful, not overly bawdy.

Conclusion: This would appeal to mystery lovers who enjoy an academic setting. I didn't know "bibliomystery" was a sub-genre. This is a fun one.
Bravo Otto Penzler for bringing it back for new audiences.

… (more)
 
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JEatHHP | 6 other reviews | Aug 23, 2022 |
44. Petrarch and His World by Morris Bishop
illustrations: Alison Mason Kingsbury
published: 1964
format: 380-page hardcover
acquired: December
read: Sep 4-21
time reading: 17:51, 2.8 mpp
rating: 4
locations: 1300’s Bologna, Avignon, Vaucluse, Rome, Milan, Padua, Venice, Arquà…
about the author:1893-1973 An American professor at Cornell, and WWI veteran who grew up in Brantford, Ontario, Geneva, NY and Yonkers NY.

More Petrarch. Maybe this will be the end. This is second biography I have read of Petrarch this year. This one is older, from 1964, and by a 1930‘s translator of Petrarch‘s Canzoniere [[Morris Bishop]] (His translation is titled [12475823::Love Rimes of Petrarch]). What I got out of this was a reminder that Petrarch led an interesting life, that he left behind extensive personal writings in the voice of someone who sounds modern and familiar, even exposing their inner insecurities. The first modern man (or at least the earliest one widely identified, or maybe just the first person to come across as relatable). The biography is well done, with extensive interesting, translated sections from his letters and works. (and lovely illustrations by the author‘s spouse, Alison Mason Kingsbury). It‘s not, however, the translator‘s critique of the Canzonierre that I was maybe hoping for.

2021
https://www.librarything.com/topic/333774#7612222
… (more)
1 vote
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dchaikin | 1 other review | Sep 25, 2021 |

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