A room of one’s own

Bob Handelman

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The almost-always-locked “secret library” on the eighth floor of Bingham Hall, otherwise known as the Comparative Literature Library, could be the university’s most reclusive study spot. Only faculty and comp lit graduate students are granted keys. The library, which holds more than 2,500 works of literature in ten languages, offers commanding views of Old Campus and downtown New Haven; it opens up for events throughout the year, such as poetry readings and literature lectures. According to campus legend, a secret society, the Yale Society for Exploration of Campus Secrets, was founded within its gothic walls.