The Professor And The Con

This “amusing and elegantly written” romp takes readers on a wild ride through the life of Robert Parkin Peters (The New York Times Book Review)—a liar, bigamist, and fraudulent priest who tricked some of the brightest minds of his generation. One day in November 1958, the celebrated historian Hugh Trevor–Roper received a curious letter. It was an appeal for help, written on behalf of a student at Magdalen College, with the unlikely claim that he was being persecuted by the Bishop of Oxford. Curiosity piqued, Trevor–Roper agreed to a meeting. It was to be his first encounter with Robert Parkin Peters: plagiarist, bigamist, fraudulent priest, and imposter extraordinaire. The Professor and the Parson is a witty and charming portrait of eccentricity, extraordinary narcissism, and a life as wild and unlikely as any in fiction. Motivated not by money but by a desire for prestige, Peters lied, stole, and cheated his way to academic positions and religious posts from Cambridge to New York. Frequently deported, and even more frequently discovered, he left a trail of destruction including seven marriages (three of which were bigamous) and an investigation by the FBI. "I was captivated from start to finish by this utterly mad, and wholly delightful story of chicanery and fantasy, and which involves a man who relentlessly duped our most cherished institutions of godly pursuit and higher learning. Plus I learned how to defrock a priest, always good to have on hand in these troubling times." —Simon Winchester, author of The Perfectionists

From the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author comes the gripping true story of a sensational religious forgery and the scandal that shook Harvard. In 2012, Dr. Karen King, a star religion professor at Harvard, announced a breathtaking discovery just steps from the Vatican: she’d found an ancient scrap of papyrus in which Jesus calls Mary Magdalene “my wife.” The mysterious manuscript, which King provocatively titled “The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife,” had the power to topple the Roman Catholic Church. It threatened not just the all-male priesthood, but centuries of sacred teachings on marriage, sex, and women’s leadership, much of it premised on the hallowed tradition of a celibate Jesus. Award-winning journalist Ariel Sabar covered King’s announcement in Rome but left with a question that no one seemed able to answer: Where in the world did this history-making papyrus come from? Sabar’s dogged sleuthing led from the halls of Harvard Divinity School to the former headquarters of the East German Stasi before landing on the trail of a Florida man with an unbelievable past. Could a motorcycle-riding pornographer with a fake Egyptology degree and a prophetess wife have set in motion one of the greatest hoaxes of the century? A propulsive tale laced with twists and trapdoors, Veritas is an exhilarating, globe-straddling detective story about an Ivy League historian and a college dropout—and how they worked together to pass off an audacious forgery as a long-lost piece of the Bible.

The Professor and the Con is a novel set in 1968, the election year and the college protests of the Viet Nam war. . A new college teacher is a pretty young woman starting her teaching career to be a Professor like her father. A recently released convict is a former returned decorated Viet Nam veteran having completed a prison term for a charge for which he claims innocence. He is hired by the University as a Maintenance man. Their paths cross amid the college protests over the Viet Nam war... She has reservations about associating with a Maintenance employee. While he is afraid she will discover that he is an ex-convict and there might be talk about a Professor and a Con..

The Professor and the Con is a novel set in 1968, the election year and the college protests of the Viet Nam war. . A new college teacher is a pretty young woman starting her teaching career to be a Professor like her father. A recently released convict is a former returned decorated Viet Nam veteran having completed a prison term for a charge for which he claims innocence. He is hired by the University as a Maintenance man. Their paths cross amid the college protests over the Viet Nam war... She has reservations about associating with a Maintenance employee. While he is afraid she will discover that he is an ex-convict and there might be talk about a Professor and a Con..

Examines the life and work of sixteenth-century physician Leonardo Fioravanti, and describes the medical community and practices of Renaissance Italy.