Status Updates From Contested Will: Who Wrote S...

"Over the course of many years lecturing and reflecting on Shakespeare, Emerson had read nearly every important work of scholarship on him. Yet all that had done was reinforce for him, as it did for so many others, an insuperable divide between what he knew of the man and the works ... 'Other admirable men have led lives in some sort of keeping with their thought, but this man in wide contrast'". Exactly!

Have been interested in the authorship question for so long. Was lucky enough to catch a lecture by a descendant of the Earl of Oxford (a major contender) when in the US. The "evidence" was compelling. Shapiro is a believer that Shakespeare (The Stratford man) wrote the plays though so I'm keen to see what he makes of the Oxford history. Still on Frances Bacon as a contender at present. Whoowee Shapiro can write ...

Wow -- a slow read! BUT so enlightening!

A massively important book; this is a work of scholarship that should be read by anyone with an interest in Shakespeare, and the (hopefully decreasing) number of nuts who seriously contend that he didn't write his own plays.