Good evening.

I am Ted Ayres.

And this is another edition of Inside the Cover.

Whether I'm in a used bookstore or a library or an independent booksellers emporium.

One of my favorite things to do is browse the aisles looking at the fiction books alphabetically shelved by the author's name or perusing the titles and subject matter of the nonfiction works.

I learn a lot and I have made some amazing discoveries.

One such recent discovery wa Harvard Yard by William Martin.

Come alon as we now go inside the cover.

William Martin was not an author I was aware of.

He is a native of Boston and is the author of Historical novels.

He graduated from Harvard in 1972, where he majored in English.

When I selecte this book Off the library shelf, I thought it was going to be about Harvard University.

Since I spent the majority of my professional caree working at or for universities, I thought, This is a book for me.

Well, Harvard was in the story, but this book covers so much more.

How about 364 years of history running from 1605 to 1969?

This book features multiple protagonists.

There are the descendants of Isaac and Rebecca Wedge-- from Isaac, who was born in 1622, to Dorothy Wilson Wedge, who was born in 1981 and who is a current Harvard student dating the halfback on the football team.

There is also Dorothy Wedge Warren, who in 1837 married Amos Warren, who was killed running guns to free state settlers in Kansas in 1856.

There is also a play written by William Shakespeare.

There is Harvard University and Peter Fallon, graduate of Harvard with a Ph.D. in history who was one of Boston's best known dealers in rare books and papers.

Harvard Yard begins with one Robert Harvard traveling to Stratford on Avon to visi his friend William Shakespeare.

Robert Harvard was courting Katherine Rogers to become his wife, and he was soliciting some magic words of love from the famed poet.

Two years later, a son is born to Robert and Katherine and he is named John.

Shakespeare comes to honor the newborn and brings with hi a gift, a volume of quarto size bound in red leather, held with a blue ribbon.

The play Love Labors Won.

A few pages later, John Harvard is on his deathbed, a man with no children.

And he is with Isaac Wedge, a fatherless boy of 16 who John Harvard has taken under his wing and encouraged to attend the new educational institution of Harvard.

On his deathbed, John Harvar makes the following statement.

“I bequeat all my books to our new college in the knowledge that students like Isaac will respect them, protect the and benefit from them.” Martin takes us along on quite a journey as the Bard's play is criticized as frivolous, if not sinful, as it finds its way from bookshelf to bookshelf to being hidden away and or disguised in various ways.

He also provides us with a summary history of Harvard from its founding on September 8, 1636 in Cambridge.

And in the current time, Peter Fallon, In addition to raising money for Harvard, attending Harvard footbal tailgates and trying to convince his son that Harvar is the right university for him, is also attempting to locate this long lost work of Shakespeare while learning that his own life may be in danger after the unexplained death of Ridley Wedge Royce.

Our book tonight has bee Harvard Yard by William Martin.

It is an historical fiction novel with the added spice of mystery and murder.

I thought this book was a fun read and I wanted to share it with our Inside the Cover audience.

And for the Harvard University graduates watching us, I also think you would enjoy this book.

It seems to be an appropriate primer as venerable Harvar approaches its quatercentennial.

See you next time right here on PBS Kansas, the home of Inside the Cover.

Good night and keep a book in your hand.