Allerton roots -- Robert Allerton's queer aesthetic -- Travel and itinerant homosexuality -- Becoming father and son -- Lord of a Hawaiian island -- Queer domesticity in Illinois and Hawai'i -- Legally father and son -- Conclusion: John Wyatt Gregg Allerton

"An Open Secret traces the history of philanthropist Robert Allerton and his companion, John Wyatt Gregg, whom Allerton formally adopted as his son in 1960, after decades of living together. Yet why did these two men, who appear to be a gay couple from our view today, choose to project a father/son relationship? Syrett argues that in a period of both rising homosexual openness and social disapproval, the men had to find an alternative public logic for their situation. Whether or not Allerton and Gregg had sex with each other, they were undoubtedly a queer union: two high-society men who did not affirm traditional notions of partnership or couplehood"--