About a year ago we ventured down the proverbial rabbit hole of "
The Authorship Question." What's the question," you ask? "Of course William Shakespeare (a.k.a. Shaksper, Shaxper, Shagsper, etc.,) from Stratford-upon-Avon wrote the plays that have come to be known as the greatest literary accomplishment of all time... Right?" Well, maybe, but the evidence sure doesn't support the notion very well. Even
Mark Twain (as well as many other noteworthy people) wrote about the absurdity of believing that The Stratford Man wrote the illustrious works, citing an extensive list of reasons for this position. (i.e., There are no known manuscripts with his name attributed to them - quite unheard of even back then. )
Many other authors have been examined as to their candidacy for authorship, including Francis Bacon, and even Queen Elizabeth I herself... Currently the most qualified seems to be
Edward de Vere, The 17th Earl of Oxford.
Thus, we found ourselves wanting to attend a conference where we could confer with "Oxfordians" and possibly have a bit more light shed on the subject... And, since we are book dealers, and do have about 800 Shakespeare-related books, we thought "why not sell books there as well?" So, we packed it all up & shipped ourselves off to Ann Arbor MI , where we were so graciously received (& rewarded) by all present.
We also attended The Tempest with The Royal Shakespeare Company (and Patrick Stewart as Prospero) which had a very unusual (and somewhat modernized) production. When I met Mr. Stewart he told me that I would probably never see another production like it, and I would tend to believe him. (Btw, he's been performing with the RSC since 1958.) In any case, he was as wonderful in person as he was on the stage, which, in my humble opinion, was outrageously spectacular in every way.
He participated in a panel at
the Conference, but was careful to opine that after reading some of Oxford's early works (from his teen years, btw), felt that it was an open and shut case that Oxford couldn't have been the author, as the writing was "pretty bad." As he was leaving someone gave him a copy of Mark Anderson's book "
Shakespeare by Another Name." No doubt if he does read it, his opinion might be altered, or at least questioned... Guess we'll have to wait to find out the outcome. In any case, we don't hold it against him either way. We can agree on at least this: The works speak for themselves, regardless of who wrote them...
Here are some links on the subject of The Authorship Question, if you'd like to find out more... The last one "
Is Shakespeare Dead" is an enacted monologue from the writing of Mark Twain, performed by Keir Cutler. In a word:
WOW!
http://www.shakespearebyanothername.com
http://www.shakespeare-oxford.com/http://www.shakespearefellowship.org/
http://www.deverestudies.org/index.cfmhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7004942638729319523&q=is+shakespeare+dead
