Harvard Yard
By William Martin

     Peter Fallon, antiquarian and Harvard graduate, is assisting in the university's annual fund raising appeal. Ridley Wedge Royer, when appealed to, gives not a donation, but a tip. The Wedge family once owned a rare and unknown Shakespeare manuscript which linked Shakespeare and Harvard's founder.

     The Wedge family had pledged to preserve Harvard's library and Isaac Wedge hid the Shakespeare quarto. Believing that the Puritans would destroy it, he hands it for safekeeping to his son, which will be repeated each generation. It appears that the manuscript is lost.

      Fallon is intrigued and sets out to try to find the manuscript. However, there are others also eager to obtain the manuscript. Fallon goes through 300 years of Harvard history to determine how it came into the possession of the Wedge family and what happened to it. Fallon becomes the target of underworld thugs, unscrupulous academics and book dealers.

     This is a successful blend of history and fiction. It traces the history of Harvard from the Salem Witch hunts and the Boston Tea Party through the Civil War to the present day, depicting the story of Harvard's beginning and its growth. It features many characters who have had a crucial role in the evolution of learning from its Puritan beginnings to the acceptance of women and minorities. The characters are made human with their dreams, wishes and changing philosophies. It is intriguing to read the comparisons of the alumni from the various eras.

     The story is one which (even though the reader’s not a Harvard alumnus) will be of interest.