 

College cloak and dagger

Ex prof’s mystery novel unfolds in Grinnell

 

When Susan Eyerly, a ietching young newspaperwomm, accepts

the job of publicity director at Larkin College, she
nuiet year. Buther work takes her behind the acader
among the realities of higher learning, which ir

.cipates a
scenes and
die the dark

quicksands oi murder, oi steadily increasing me . .-. oi creeping

terror.

From the moment that President Hen-on ta .ice old guy whom
everybody admired) was murdered, susan round herseli in the
middle oi a vortex oi conﬂicting ambitions, oi hate and tear
masked by smiling, scholarly faces. oi old tragedies, long buried.

never forgotten,

Love and murder went hand in hand, haunting the dark A
buildings and the campus sodden with autumnal rains. Susan
learned that the dead past could return to blight the present and
that secrets lurked uneasily in dusty files To the evil spirit that
shadowed Larkin College. Susan’s inquisitive eyes, her clever,
trained mind, her obstinate courage became increasingly
menacing. Death made a round oi calls, in a guise no one would
have guessed had not Susan disinterred the truth,

iJackl'l notes from Prominent Among the Mourners

 

by Mark Mayer

Sounds like a real pot-boiler,
doesn't it7 And it is, too. just like a
hundred other “Mainline
Mysteries." But there's an in
triguing story behind this par
ticular book. , Prominent Among
the Mourners, published in 1946,

It's actually set on the Grinnell
College campus, and almost all oi
the characters and virtually all of
the buildings in the book are based
on factireal people and places
What makes the book doubly in-
lcresting is the iactthat so many oi
the references are scandalous,
possibly even libelous, In short, the
book is a hatchet job on the college.

THAT the story takes place at
Grinnell College is certain, even
though it is called “Larkin
CollegeH in the novel. The cir-
cumstantial evidence is over-
whelming-

The story takes place at Larkin
College. in the small Midwestern
iarming community oi LarkinVllle,
lounded in the nineteenth ccntury
by. you guessed it, J B. Larkin.
The book is filled with references
toJ B L ‘n'sNewEnglantl roots
and his strong moral and
democratic ideals, which were
much like the real J.B.'s. There is
the familiar llol‘th'suuth railroad
tracks that run through campus.
and numerous references are
made to various campus buildings,
all recognizable,

OF COURSE the most Db-
vious giveaway to the story’s
location is the author himselfione
Thomas Duncan. who served at
Grinnell as an assistant proiessor
oi journalism and later as the
director oi publicity.

He came to Grinnell in 1542, after
a short newspaper career in Des
Moines He lasted only
two rather moody years here, and
then leit ior a writing career out
West Prominent Among the
Mourners, his first novel, was
published soon after he left.

WHAT kind of mail was he'.7
“Well. I would say he was pretty
much of a loner,” relates Grant
Gale. now Professor Emeritus of
Physics. will) was a member of the
faculty when the book was
published. “The reason you can't
find out much about him is that he
was kind of aloof~he didn’t com-
municate much. he was just about
the kind or guy you’d expect to
write this kind of book."

Actually, it's not certain that
Duncan wrote the book alone,
Many people believe that his wife
Carolyn tsometimes called Acteat
had a hand in the writing as well.
“I would think that much of the
book is hers,"Gale surmises.
“She was a little more book
oriented than him "

TIIE BOOK'S plot is pretty
standard as these things go: soon
after Susan Eyerly, a sharp ex-
ncwspaper reporter, arrives at
Larkin College to head the
Publicity Office, murders start
,occurring. Firstthe president (who
had the goods on just about
everyone) gets bumped off, then

his catty secretary, {allowed by the

ypompousjrofessor oi public

 

speaking, Accusations ily and the
entire campus is cloaked in a tog ot
mystery and terror. Suspects
Creep in every corner,

of course Susan soon finds
herself hot on the trail of the
murderer and deeply involved in
the sinister affair—even more so
after the romantic interest in the
story, a young absentrminded
English professor, is implicated
and arrested. An elaborate trap is
laid with Susan as bait, and the
murderer is caught aiter some
suspicious highrjinks and a little
iancy lootwork on the part oi the
author, This is no classic.

THE murderer turns out to be
Carrie Crandall. Susan's landlady.
the strongrwilled wile oi “Boy"
Crandall. one of the college's most
revered proiessors Actually, you
never would have guessed.

Anyway. aiter catching the
murderer and clearing her beloved
of all guilt. Susan leaves Larkln
Collegcand its long standing hates.
to lind happiness llith her new
husband. you-knowrwhn.

"It was virtually required
reading tor all new iaculty
members." relates .loe Wall. now
Parker Protessor oi History. who
returned to Grinnell to teach the
had been an undergrad) less than a
year after the book’s publication,
"It was the conversation piece on
campus when l came "

THE MOST cle vindictive
characterization is oi a professor
called Scott Gerard Ball He is
portrayed as a ruthlessly dm~
bitious man. having eyes only lor
the president's chair and willing to
step on anyone who would deny
him of his goal The character of

Scott Gerard Ball is modeled on
then-Assistant Protessor 01

English Stuart Gerry Brow . at
that time one oi the college's most
respected iaculty members. “He
was one oi the most exciting
proiessors i'vc ever had," com-
ments Wall,

it seems that while at Grinnell.
Duncan became embroiled in a
bitter personal icud with Brown.

 

Gale suggests that it most likely
arose irom protessional jealousy.
Wall remembers that Brown and
Duncan once got into a tremendous
argument at 'a large party,
“Duncan left in a great huff. He
never spoke to Brown again," says
Wall, though he admits he doesn't
know the cause of the rift.

in the book Bail lBrowm ap-
pears as a scheming. egotistical
buffooniand Duncan even goes so
tar as to compare him to a little
Hitler (remember, Prominent
Among the Mourners was
published in 1946). A question,
hardly relevant to the plot, is
raised as to the possibility of Ball
having mudered his own step son,
when in fact a step son of Professor
Brown had died, probably by
suicide, only about a year prior to
the book's release. Duncan's
characterization of Brown was so
clearly malicious that tew people
took it seriously. Unfortunately,
Brown was one who did.

“STUART Gerry Brown really
left Grinnell because of the book,”
Wall says “He had another offer,
butl think the book was the major
[actor in his leaving " Brown left
Grinnell for Syracuse. Eventually
he went to the University of
Hawaii, where, Wall notes, he
just recently retired “after a very
distinguished career.”

But Duncan‘s picture oi Brown
wasn't totally fictitious. “He was a
feisty character.” recalls Wall.
“He was clearly very ambitious;
he had his eye on very big things,"

Brown was not the only one
depicted in an unfavorable light.
Carrie Crandall. who eventually
emerges as the murderer. was in
real life lila Payne. wife of
Pi-oiessor Charles Payne. then one
oi the college's most respected
facultv members, However. unlike
Brown. lnii Payne seemed to have
taken delight in being selected for
a role in the book. and especially in
being chosen as the murderer

While the president or the collcge
in 1946 was actually Samuel N,
Stevens, Duncan modeled
PreSldent Hcrron after their
President Emeritus Nollen. “He
was still living here,“ explains
Wall. “and very much on the
scene "

Nollen is depicted as an
academician having little concern
or capacity tor the business side oi
running a college. Yet he was well
liked, a gentle and moral man, in
short, the periecl murder victim.
The book is filled with references
to his background oi old
Dutch stock in the southern part oi
the statkboth apparently true as
the Nollen family came from Fella,
a small, wealthy Dutch community
south of Grinnell.

What was his reaction to the
book? “He was," Grant Gale ex-
plains, “not one to talk about such

Author Tom Duncan and his wife Carolyn, who might have helped
her husband with the book, laugh at thc typewriter that brought them
lots of fame tat least at Grinnell), but no money. Their tlog, Jeii. is not -

amused.

 

things."

TllE second murder victim was
President Herron's secretary,
Persis Maxey Next to Ball
lBrownt she gets the worst
treatment in the book She is
depicted as a vicious backrstabbEr,
a cold, ieline manipulator. “That‘s
probably Adeline Pruyn, President
Stevens’ secretary." says Wall. He
adds that Duncan's description of
her was “pretty accurate,” She
was, in his words. “an awful
person"

The character of Brian
Kilpatrick, the obsequlous,
boisterous professor of speech who
also (of courset gets murdered, is
based on John Ryan, professor of
public speaking. According to
Gale, Ryan was a “great
character" who ran a series of
Dale Carnegie courses in Des

Moines as a sideline. “He was a _

little like F.D.R., people either
loved him or hated him . . . . He was
probably rather ioreign to Duncan,
He had lots of friends and
enemies."

And then there is a very minor
character who goes by the name of
Abbott, a proiessor oi physics, who
pops up every now and then in the
book The character is based upon

 

“those kids in blue jeans, plaid
shirts, and moccasins ” Yet
Duncan's motives are apparent
The book is primarily about the
faculty, and it is the faculty who
bears the brunt of his stormy
prose.

“Once they had been men with
brilliant futures,” he writes. “They
had been gomg to head depart
ments at Chicago and Harvard and
Staniord. They had been going to
travel during their sabbatical
years But unaccountably,
things had not worked out that
way. In their forties and fifties and
sixties they found themselves
stuck in a small college in a small
town, That was a very bitter
faculty, at Larkin."

DUNCAN also makes lighter,
less pointed stabs at the faculty.
Mention Is made of their
“unusually high rate of halitosis”
and of their rather eccentric modﬁ
oi dress. But it would be wrong to
dismiss all of Duncan's comments
as merely satirical. Clearly one oi
his intents was to discredit the
school. and many felt at the time

that he had succeeded,
“I read it with utter

fascination,“ says Wall, “but it's
really a bad book. It might have

"Burma Hall is always in my dream. that relic of some Victorinn
architect-s ineptness. a dripping mass oi mortar in the sodden day."

Grant Gale. who admits that he
was “surprised" when he read the
book, but he explains. "it was such
a minor, innocuous part, I didn't
feel too involved."

MUCH OF ll’lL‘ action In thehook
takes place in an old ad-
ministration building known as
Burma Hall lno relation to lrmai.
in one of the most memorable and
overwritten passages in the book.
Duncan offers this description of
Burma Hall»

“I dream I must go back to
Larkinvllle again , I see the bare
tortured limbs of the oaks and
clms. wct alld mistrhung. I see the
slagrcolorcd sky of November with
the gray old snow and the puddles
oi gray water and the black. In-
decent holes in the snow garment,
Burma Hall is always in my
dream. that relic of some Victorian
architect's incptiiess, a dripping
mass oi mortar in the sodden day."
Burma Hall “as in actuality
Magoun or Chicago Hall, an old
Victorian administration building
whose appearance pretty well
matched Duncan’s description. It
was eventually torn down to make
room for Burling Library.

The scene of the first murder is
the President’s house, which is
obviously Grinnell House. Duncan
describes it as "a corner house that
wouldn’t loolr. out oi place in
some swank subdivision A red-
brick Georgian Colonial, it stood
back on a level lawn that had been
barbered and manicured like golf
course greens."

WHILE the story is set at the
college, there are very few
references to the students, save for
some passing comments about

 

been an interesting satire on the
college, but parts are simply pure
personal vendetta,"

”The book received a rather
negative reaction irom the
faculty." Gale recalls “Most felt
that it shouldn't have been
published because of the cruel
reference to the death of Brown's
son and the implications made
about the Paynes, it “as rather
condemned on campus."

“lIE tDUNCAlVl certainly didn't
have any great love for Grinnell,”
says Margaret Kiesel too), who
remembers the book we“ “The
book caused a great iuror and
excitement when it was published.
People were clamoring'to get it "

Despite Mrs. Kiesel's statement
t.‘out people clamoring tor the
book. it was hardly a best seller.
From available reports, well under
6.000 issues were Sold and it has
long since been out at print,

Unfortunately, Prominent
Aiming thc hlnurners is too
seriously llawed a hook to be
considered a good Cxample oi a
classic murder mystery. or even
good writing. The author's own
vindictiveness too often gets in the
way oi a rather interesting story.
And his preoccupation with
making nearly half oi his
characters look like fools
ultimately backfires and ruins the
book, For those interested in
reading a scintillating murder
mystery—forget it. _

But for those interested in the
complex workings of a Grinnell
College society thirty years ago,
Prominent Among the Mourners is

,a unique, and interesting window

into the past.

 

