Story needs to be told... But by a different author. Poorly written; nothing but speculation and spinning out single facts for multiple pages of gloss. Most of the time, alternate explanations seem more reasonable to me than the author's "opinion" about what probably happened. This book could have been a quarter the size and contain only facts, not judgments based on no more information than you have as the reader. ( )

It's an account of the purges of gay students from the campus after the suicide of one of them that occurred in the nineteen-twenties. Very shocking, especially considering that the purges themselves led to more suicides and completely ruined the lives of the students in question. Not only did Harvard purge their names from the permanent records, they also sent out letters to explain why they dismissed this students if they chose to associate themselves with the university in any CV they wrote for an application to other schools or jobs. This meant that many of these students could not hope for further education at other schools at all or for jobs. The last of these letters was sent in the early seventies.
What struck me as very strange is Wight's last chapter which outlines the possibility that homophobia may be as genetically induced as homosexuality. While I get that he probably had to include something of the sort to stop him from being in trouble with the renowned university, it was still rather baffling to see him struggling to explain and absolve these decisions which had ruined the lives of some twenty students for decades to come, sometimes on the basis of mere association with gay students.

Written midway through the past decade, Harvard's Secret Court hasn't been touted as it should be or read as widely as it needs to be. Wright's nonfiction study of a gay witch hunt at one of the country's most respected universities reads like a fiction thriller. Those who tend to shy away from nonfiction will find this book as exciting to read as the best of the mystery genre. The sad part is that the witch hunt, the suspense with which Wright seduces the reader, and the characters are all real. Everyone should read this book: gay folks, straight folks, history buffs, parents with sons or daughters at universities, and anyone who fears prejudice and hate. This well-written and well-researched book shows us how easy it is for the fear of one or two individuals to ruin the lives of many. Yes, the action in Harvard's Secret Court took place in 1920, but what happened then could happen again. This book, although of gay and lesbian interest, should not be stuck on a "gay ghetto" bookshelf awaiting only gay readers. Wright's work deserves to be read - and thought about - by a large cross section of the reading public: high-school students, college graduates, atheists, and the right-wing religious. Harvard's Secret Court will keep the reader up all night as the action - and the appalling reality - sends one back to a New England campus in the 1920s to meet an interesting cast of characters. We will all look forward to future work of this caliber from William Wright. ( )