DeVore says that some textbooks are ghostwritten by journalists, and marketed under the names of well-known scholars to improve national sales. Although he says he knows of no one at Harvard who would stoop to such a practice, he believes it is more common among "people at lesser-known universities."

"It's very political how people are assigned to write books, because it's so lucrative," says Charles J. Sykes, author of Profscam and a sharp critic of academia. "It's really quite a racket."

Some teachers at Harvard say they do have qualms about assigning their own books.

Several of the University's first-year expository writing courses use texts by Expos Director Richard Marius. But Marius says he asks Expos teachers not to let him know if they plan to assign either of the books, A Writer's Companion and A Short Guide to Writing About History, in their sections.

"That's an embarrassing thing," Marius says. "I never try to get the staff to use the books that I write."

Marius says he estimates that A Writer's Companion is used in 400 schools nationwide, and that he earns a $1.85 royalty on each $15 copy sold.

An `Uncomfortable' Feeling

Marius says he donates all royalties he earns from sales to Harvard students--a few hundred dollars each year--to the Harvard Advocate, a campus literary magazine.

"I feel uncomfortable profiting from Harvard students," he says.

But even Sykes says that Harvard academics have several reasons to use their own books in courses, explaining that profit is an unlikely motive in most cases.

"If you're a world-renowned expert, it's almost natural to assign [your own book] to your class," he says. "If everyone in the country is assigning books by Steven Jay Gould, there's no reason why Steven Jay Gould shouldn't."

And at Harvard, such practices are widespread. More than 70 courses offered this spring feature at least one work by the professor teaching the course on the required or recommended reading list.

Introduction to Psychology, for example, co-authored by Senior Lecturer on Psychology L. Dodge Fernald, Jr., has long been a staple of Psychology 1, "Introduction to Psychology," whenever it is Fernald's turn to teach the course.

And Dillon Professor of the History of France Stanley H. Hoffmann is well-known for assigning students his weighty texts and weightier reading lists. His Duties Beyond Borders--priced at $12.95--and Janus and Minerva--at $23.50--round out the assigned reading for his Moral Reasoning 28, "Ethics and International Relations."

But the seven texts Cavell uses in "Moral Perfectionism" inspired one graduate visiting to the Coop to remark that the philosophy professor had "out-Hoffmanned Hoffmann."