Harvard's Secret Court: The Savage 1920 Purge of Campus Homosexuals [Hardcover]

William Wright (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 22, 2005

In 2002, a researcher for The Harvard Crimson came across a restricted archive labeled "Secret Court Files, 1920." The mystery he uncovered involved a tragic scandal in which Harvard University secretly put a dozen students on trial for homosexuality and then systematically and persistently tried to ruin their lives.

In May of 1920,Cyril Wilcox, a freshman suspended from Harvard, was found sprawled dead on his bed, his room filled with gas--a suicide. The note he left behind revealed his secret life as part of a circle of (cut "young") homosexual students.The resulting witch hunt and the lives it cost remains one of the most shameful episodes in the history of America's premiere university. Supported by legendary Harvard President Lawrence Lowell, Harvard conducted its investigation in secrecy. Several students committed suicide;others had their lives destroyed by an ongoing effort on the part of Harvard to destroy their reputations. Harvard's Secret Court is a deeply moving indictment of the human toll of intolerance and the horrors of injustice that can result when a powerful institution loses its balance.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this repetitive and somewhat melodramatic narrative, prolific biographer Wright (Born That Way, etc.) tells the astonishing story of a group of Harvard students who were expelled in 1920 for homosexual conduct. After the suicide of Cyril Wilcox, a gay student, Harvard's president authorized a "Secret Court" of deans and scholars to investigate the sexual life of a group of students who often hosted sailors, drag queens and "boys from town" in covert dorm-room dance parties. Fueled by a desire to rid Harvard of homosexuality entirely, the committee's harsh treatment led to the suicide of another student and permanently ruined the careers of a few others. Wright has gotten this story from the proceedings of the court, which—along with personal letters and other documents—survived untouched in a massive classified file in the Harvard archives until 2002, when a reporter from the Harvard Crimson discovered it. Wright's painstaking attention to each student interrogation, family history and Secret Court administrator, along with his distracting authorial commentary, may leave some readers wishing that he had confined this story to a magazine article. Nevertheless, Wright succeeds in compiling a drama that will satisfy readers thirsty for pop-historical scandals from our nation's unregenerate past. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The Nathan Marsh Pusey Library houses the Harvard Archives, a collection of three centuries' worth of records on the university's employees, buildings, clubs, curricula, and students. Hidden in it for some 80 years were accounts of a "brutal and destructive" purge of homosexuals at Harvard and the secret court that conducted it. After Cyril Wilcox killed himself in 1920, his brother Lester's inquiries reverberated from Boston to Broadway. Armed with two incriminating letters and a list of 10 names that came from a gay cafe owner tracked via those letters, Lester confronted Dean Chester Grenough, who found in the documents proof of a homosexual network of undergraduates. Five men selected by president A. Lawrence Lowell were ordered to stamp out the apparent plague. They led a witch hunt that destroyed many lives, sometimes literally through suicide. Wright's rediscovery of this shocking incident constitutes a timely reminder to history buffs, sociologists, and general readers alike of the effects of organized intolerance. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (September 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312322712
• ISBN-13: 978-0312322717
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,462,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Vengeful Harvard College Eats Its Own, January 6, 2006

By 

A reader from Boston, MA (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Harvard's Secret Court: The Savage 1920 Purge of Campus Homosexuals (Hardcover)

William Wright has revealed an astonishing and gruesomely fascinating episode in American history in this investigation of a roundup of students at Harvard College who were homosexual or indulging in homosexuality. Following the suicide of a student who had been left by his Boston cafe-owning lover, a secret court was established whose major governing influence was the college president, the beloved A. Lawrence Lowell, better known for his part in sending Sacco and Vanzetti to the electric chair, changing the acceptance procedure to ensure that the number of Jews admitted to the college was limited, and attempting to prevent black students from living in dormitories. This secret court "requested" the appearance of anybody from the Boston/Cambridge area who it felt had influenced its precious charges in such a loathsome and immoral way, and all such "requests" to appear were respected, even though the persons subpoenaed by this kangaroo court were in danger of having their reputations destroyed. But the book primarily investigates the students involved, the facts of the investigation and the future lives of the accused, one of whom committed suicide immediately after questioning and another after 10 years, his life having been, for all intents and purposes, ruined by the influence of his expulsion from Harvard. Some of the expelled recovered to one degree or another from the experience to eke out decent lives. One became a very influential and politically connected jurist. The story is heartbreaking and the cruelty and vindictiveness of the court staggering. Wright takes no prisoners in delineating the facts. Bizarrely, however, after observing that Lowell left his fortune to a Harvard-related philanthropic organization, Wright notes that it is his mistakes that are remembered, "perhaps unjustly". Such a generous judgment is hard to explain. This book is vividly illuminating of the overweening arrogance of WGU (World's Greatest University), the hysteria surrounding homosexuality in the U.S. post-WWI, the potential for a hateful cruelty among conservative Brahmin educators, and human resiliency and human tragedy in the face of a vengeful witch-hunting elite.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Harvard's Secret Court : The Savage 1920 Purge of Campus Homosexuals, March 18, 2006

By 

A. H. Wimer (Key West, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Harvard's Secret Court: The Savage 1920 Purge of Campus Homosexuals (Hardcover)

WOW, to think that the powers that be at Harvard in the 20's and future leaders of the US can affect the lives of individuals is something akin to todays government......don't cross me! Very well written and a real eye opener. You'll enjoy this book start to finish.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dramatic story, supurbly told, November 13, 2005

By 

Michael G. Curry (Annapolis, Maryland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Harvard's Secret Court: The Savage 1920 Purge of Campus Homosexuals (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed this. Like reading a mystery but it is all true. I got really involved with the students and cared about them. I hated to put it down. Almost read it in one sitting. Moves really fast and the ending is a real shocker.