Harvard Yard [Kindle Edition]

William Martin (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Martin, who introduced antiquarian Peter Fallon in his debut novel Back Bay (1979), brings him back for a second quest in this sprawling bibliomystery, which traces the tightly interlaced histories of the fictional Wedge family and Harvard University. Fallon, a proud Harvard grad, assists in the university's annual fund-raising appeals. One call, to Ridley Wedge Royce, lands him not a donation but a tip. The intriguing possibility that the Wedge family once owned a rare and unknown Shakespeare manuscript-a text purportedly linking Will Shakespeare and Harvard's founder-is enough to hook Fallon. But others are on the same scent and willing to go to any lengths to root out the manuscript if it still exists. How it came into the possession of the Wedges, and what happened to it next is gradually revealed as Martin spins through 300 years of American history-from the Salem witch trials and the Boston Tea Party to the Civil War and up to the radical late 1960s-telling a tale of Harvard the institution growing from a tiny establishment under beastly first master Nathaniel Eaton to become America's premier university. Fallon's search takes a back seat to the historical material, but the novel provides good entertainment and copious Crimson lore.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Martin continues to entertain with the successful formula he perfected in best-sellers Back Bay (1979) and Cape Cod (1991). The author races back and forth through time in order to solve a bookish mystery rooted in historical events. When antiquarian bookseller Peter Fallon follows the clues he hopes will lead him to recover a lost Shakespeare play written in the bard's own hand, he himself becomes the target of both underworld thugs and unscrupulous academics. The most compelling action takes place in the past as he traces the utterly fascinating evolution of Harvard University by interweaving it with the intimate history of one of New England's first families. Bound by oath to preserve John Harvard's library, Issac Wedge takes care to squirrel away the Shakespearean quarto the dying Harvard entrusted to his care. Realizing that Puritan reactionaries would most certainly destroy the play, Wedge hands it down for safekeeping to his own son, establishing a pattern that is repeated by each succeeding generation until it appears that the manuscript has been lost. Or has it? It is up to Fallon to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. The unexpected twists and turns through history will keep readers guessing and the pages turning. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 5280 KB
• Print Length: 592 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (October 29, 2003)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000V2LQPK
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #498,870 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

In his boyhood, William Martin loved what he later called "big stories on broad canvases." He read the novels of C.S. Forester, Dickens, and western author Will Henry. He sat transfixed by the big movies of the early sixties. So after college he went to Hollywood to try his hand at screenwritng but quickly found that his instincts were better suited to novels. His first, "Back Bay," introduced treasure hunter Peter Fallon in a new kind of adventure that joined the contemporary mystery-thriller to the historical novel. In his nine novels (including four best selling Peter Fallon adventures), Martin has tracked national treasures across the landscape of the American imagination, chronicled the lives of the great and the anonymous in American history, and brought to life legendary American locations, from "Cape Cod" to "Annapolis" to the "City of Dreams." He has also written an award-winning PBS documentary on the life of Washington and a cult-classic horror movie, has contributed book reviews to the Boston Globe, and has taught writing across the country, from the Harvard Extension School to the famous Maui Writers Conference. He lives near Boston with his wife and has three grown children. His work has established him as a "storyteller whose smoothness matches his ambition."(Publisher's Weekly) And he was the recipient of the 2005 New England Book Award, given to "an author whose body of work stands as a significant contribution to the culture of the region."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars (3.5) It's all in the journey, November 8, 2003

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Harvard Yard (Hardcover)

Martin's latest novel follows the history of Harvard University from its inception in mid-1600, when endowed by John Harvard, Puritan son of Robert Harvard, of Southwark, England. After most of the family is decimated by the plague in England in 1625, surviving son John Harvard moves with his wife to New England, where he bequeaths his father's prestigious library, with Robert Harvard's message to the future, that "a man is known by his books".

Among the precious volumes is a handwritten play by William Shakespeare for John and his wife. The play is even more valuable because it is an original and the only copy of it ever produced by Shakespeare. However, things become difficult as the first establishment for higher education is run by the strict Puritan dogma, one that is restrictive of frivolous ideas or temptations. As we follow the history of the small volume, it is necessary for it to be removed and placed in a safe place until the college has broadened its perspective on what constitutes an education. The ensuing quest for this Shakespearean work is the central theme of Harvard Yard.

Moving back and forth in time, Harvard Yard revisits the original manuscript and its unique place in the Harvard library, making a case for the play's removal from the library when its survival is threatened by the historical imperative of the Puritan ethic, as well as the suggestion of it's possible reappearance. Antiquarian book dealer Peter Fallon is called to Harvard by his fellow alumni, descendants of the Wedge family, a dynasty that has been integral to the formation of Harvard's educational policy and financial resources. Fallon is asked to do research to determine if there is such a lost play, and if so, to do all he can to locate it, as it is worth millions of dollars. There is a huge market for this collectible; along with legitimate dealers there are criminal elements, all vying for information that will lead to this great prize.

As in his previous novels, Cape Cod and Back Bay, Harvard Yard is a successful blend of fiction and history. Many of the characters play pivotal roles in the evolution of higher learning in America, from its Puritan beginnings, classical underpinnings and eventual acceptance of minorities into what is essentially an elite group with great influence in society.
There is an interesting thread of feminism underlying the whole story, acknowledging the struggles of the women through their respective generations, those unable to demand a voice for themselves. Each difficult period of history is detailed: the unfolding evolution of education and politics, from the Boston Tea Party to the Revolution to the Civil War, the great fire that destroyed the original library and all the other seminal events that have impacted this country.

Harvard Yard is an engrossing read, thanks to the author's lively approach to historical events, the development of higher education and the silent war for equal opportunity that continues today. These characters are found on the pages of history, but Martin gives them life and individuality through their dreams, longings, differences and changing religious philosophies. As well, the author broadens the scope of the story, sculpting a human dimension to the past and our interpretation of the future. Luan Gaines/ 2003.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Harvard, "the beginning of things and the center of things.", October 19, 2003

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Harvard Yard (Hardcover)

Through Harvard grad Peter Fallon, a rare book dealer, author William Martin reveals the more than three hundred fifty years of Harvard history and its intimate connections to the history of New England and the nation. An ancient legend says that Robert Harvard, father of John Harvard, for whom the college was named, lived in Stratford-on-Avon and was a friend of Shakespeare. Supposedly, Shakespeare gave him a hand-written manuscript of a now-lost play as a wedding present, sometime around 1605. Author Martin uses this legend as the fulcrum around which the book turns and speculates about what might have happened to the play over the course of almost four hundred years.

A dozen generations after Shakespeare gave the manuscript to Robert Harvard, a member of the Wedge family engages Peter Fallon of Back Bay to try to confirm the existence of the manuscript and ascertain its whereabouts. As Fallon begins his research into the story of the Isaac Wedge, thought to have received the manuscript from John Harvard, he introduces us to such luminaries as Cotton Mather, a religious zealot who began Harvard at age 11; George Burroughs, who was executed in the Salem Witch Trials; Caleb Wedge, who fought in the Revolutionary War; Theodore Wedge, a friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau; and eventually to Joseph Kennedy, Harry Widener, John Kenneth Galbraith, Robert Oppenheimer, and President Franklin Roosevelt. We witness the horrors of King Philip's War and the religious excesses of the Salem Witch Trials, the Great Boston Fire, the Civil War, the sinking of the Titanic, two world wars, and the opening of the college to Jews, blacks, and women.

Martin's concern is to make history lively and understandable, his characters sympathetic and often noble. He humanizes even the dour Puritans and the earliest settlers, observing the commonplaces of their lives. A great deal of humor enlivens the novel, which even includes chases reminiscent of slapstick farce. He emphasizes basic ideas, rather than the minutiae of history, entertaining his readers, rather than bogging down in complex details. Ultimately, Martin explains how succeeding administrations at Harvard have ensured that the brightest students from all walks of life will have the same opportunities for intellectual growth, regardless of income level or sex. This huge and entertaining novel is a tribute both to Harvard and to the men and women it has educated--popular history at its best. Mary Whipple

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Martin's Very Best, November 13, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Harvard Yard (Hardcover)

Harvard Yard is William Martin's very best in a pantheon of excellent novels. The fortunes of Harvard, the people who brought the college into being and the four hundred years of history, with all the pathos, ethos and Thanatos found in the very best historical novels. Martin goes for the double story here, as he had in Back Bay and Cape Cod: the historical story moving forward through time told through the eyes of a cast of facinating characters who went to Harvard and built this nation - and the current story in which the main character and the woman he loves discover a dark secret at Harvard that could change the fortunes of the world. I read it straight through, wanting more. Highly recommended.