Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and short story writer. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927, 1928, and 1930.
But when Dredge succeeds to the Landfear Chair of Evolution and becomes Director of the state-of-the-art Landfear Laboratory after his patron's death, he embarks on a series of lectures which seem to be designed to demolish Landfear's life's work. In the face of such treachery and ingratitude, Archie Landfear resolves to confront Dredge.