In Hemingway's Hidden Craft, published by the Pennsylvania State University Press in 1979, Mr. Oldsey "did some pretty good research on why [Hemingway] didn't choose other endings," Mr. Oldsey's son, William, said yesterday.

On Saturday, Bernard S. Oldsey, 85, a former English literature professor at West Chester University as well as an author, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease at his West Chester home.

After earning his doctorate in English literature from Penn State in 1955, Mr. Oldsey taught there until 1969, when he moved to what is now West Chester University. He retired in 1990.

"My father was a full professor" at Penn State, his son said, "recruited to West Chester to, among other things, help the university create graduate degree programs in English."

Mr. Oldsey also founded College Literature, published by West Chester and circulated internationally, with an editorial board of academics.

"My dad went to Penn State as an undergraduate on a football and track scholarship," William Oldsey said, but his college days were interrupted by World War II.

While serving in the 34th Infantry Division, Mr. Oldsey was wounded in an arm in the Apennine Mountains of Italy, earning a Purple Heart.

Returning to Penn State, he earned a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1948, a master's in English literature in 1949, and an English-literature doctorate in 1955.

Two of his 15 books were novels. The first, The Spanish Season, was written largely at the University of Zaragoza in Spain, where he was a Fulbright visiting professor of American literature in 1964-65.

"Most were literary criticism," his son said. For the Hemingway book, he said, "my father got into the Hemingway archives," with the permission of the author's widow, Mary, as one of the first to be given access.

Mr. Oldsey's second novel, The Snows of Yesteryear, was published in 2001 and was a spy tale set in Ukraine.

Besides his son, Mr. Oldsey is survived by daughter Jan Oldsey-Zucker, a brother, and seven grandchildren.

A visitation was set from 4 to 6 p.m. today at DellaVecchia, Reilly, Smith & Boyd Funeral Home, 410 N. Church St., West Chester, followed by a 6 p.m. funeral service there. Burial will be at 3 p.m. tomorrow at Centre County Memorial Park in State College, Pa.