Brooks Mather Kelley (1929–2013)

Covering Yale’s history from inception to Griswold’s 1963 death, Kelley seems to cover almost everything. However I found that things of personal interest such as the physical campus development, early sports successes, and goofy historical anecdotes are lightly touched upon whereas he goes into excruciating detail about policy of governance, endowment strategies and, more interesting, the trails and tribulations of developing the proper curriculum for the Yale undergrad. The early history – the first century roughly – is also a bit limited due to the obvious dearth of research material, but Kelley still weaves what’s there into a comprehensive narrative. I was hoping/assuming this would continue through the Brewster years up to the date of publication (1973 – thus covering the sundry issues of the late 1960s) as there was still about a ¾ inch stack of pages post-Griswold. But, alas, these were merely the notes. Highly recommended for Yalies who have ample time on their hands.… (més)