Robert B. Parker tapped into his own academic literary background to write his brilliant Spenser detective novels.

Parker was a doctorate in English literature, wrote his dissertation in part on Raymond Chandler and taught for several years at Northeastern University. He tapped into that background when writing the classic Spenser private eye series, giving the gumshoe a deep autodidact knowledge of literature and the humanities, in addition to being quick with a gun or his fists.

Austin Tichenor writes at the Folger Shakespeare Library:

Spenser considers himself a modern “knight errant,” a medieval figure who helps those in need and embodies chivalric ideals…. Edmund Spenser, the detective’s namesake, wrote The Faerie Queene in 1590, which chronicles the adventures of several such knights….

A key aspect of the wandering knight is the freedom to be guided by his own moral compass. Fired from the police for insubordination (“one of my best things,” he says), Spenser explains, “I handle the problems I choose to; that’s why I’m freelance. It gives me the luxury to worry about justice. The cops can’t.” Spenser is tenacious, unstoppable, very good at what he does, and extremely loyal, reassuring one victim, “You are in trouble enough to pull up over your head and tie a knot in. But you’re not in it alone. I’ll help you. It’s my line of work.”

Parker tapped into his own academic background for the first Spenser novel, “The Godwulf Manuscript,” in which Spenser is is hired by a university to recover a stolen 14th Century manuscript:

Spenser’s very first sentence in The Godwulf Manuscript–“The office of the university president looked like the front parlor of a successful Victorian whorehouse”–tells you right away his attitude towards authority and institutional pretension, as well as his appreciation of an elegant turn of phrase.

I’ve reread many Spenser novels several times, but only read “The Godwulf Manuscript” once — Parker himself was unimpressed by it; he had yet to find Spenser’s true voice. I may have to give the book another try.