The Man from Stratford: Questioning the Identity of “William Shakespeare” (Online Only)

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Join the 53rd Street Library for a fascinating conversation on the attribution of some of the greatest works of literature ever produced.

To Shakespeare lovers everywhere, as well as to those who are encountering him for the first time: know that a great mystery lies before you. How could William “Shakspere” of Stratford have been the author, William Shakespeare, and leave no definitive evidence of it that dates from his lifetime? And why is there an enormous gulf between the alleged author’s life and the contents of the works? Presented by the Shakespearean Authorship Trust, this exclusive program will explore the Shakespeare Authorship Question through an online discussion of the history, the conflicting views, and the evidence concerning the authorship of the plays and poems traditionally credited to William Shakespeare.

About the Presenters:

Professor William Leahy is Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, Ireland, as well as a Professor in Shakespeare Studies. His early research specialized in Shakespeare and Elizabethan Processions resulting in his book for Ashgate Publishers, Elizabethan Triumphal Processions (2005) and, as section editor for the John Nichols’ Project, in “The Passage Of Our Most Drad Soveraigne Lady Quene Elyzabeth Through The Citie Of London,” The Progresses and Public Processions of Elizabeth I (Oxford University Press, 2014). His particular interests at the time were the role and representation of the common people in Elizabethan and Shakespearean literature, specifically Shakespeare’s history plays. As the book was published, he became interested in authorship attribution studies and has since published widely on the Shakespeare Authorship Question, most notably in his 2010 edition of collected essays, Shakespeare and his Authors: Critical Perspectives on the Authorship Question, as co-editor of The Many Lives of William Shakespeare, a special edition of the Journal of Early Modern Studies (2016), and as editor of My Shakespeare: The Authorship Controversy (2018). Professor Leahy is currently Chair of the Shakespearean Authorship Trust and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Dr. Ros Barber, the Shakespearean Authorship Trust Director of Research, is a senior lecturer in Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London and a founding member of the International Marlowe Shakespeare Society. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, The Marlowe Papers (Sceptre 2012 UK, St Martin’s Press 2013 US) was winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize 2013, joint winner of the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award 2013, and long-listed for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2013. Her Ph.D. in English Literature was the first in the UK on the Shakespeare Authorship Question; her academic articles on early modern literary biography and authorship attribution studies have been published in Rethinking History, the Journal of Early Modern Studies, Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, Critical Survey, Notes and Queries, and Christopher Marlowe the Craftsman (Ashgate 2010). As a three-time joint winner of the Calvin & Rose G. Hoffman prize for a distinguished work on Christopher Marlowe (2011, 2014, 2018), she is also author of the growing authorship question compendium Shakespeare: The Evidence. Ros founded the free, online Coursera MOOC, “Introduction to Who Wrote Shakespeare” accredited by the University of London and which has attracted 15,000 students to date.

Dr. Robin Williams spent twenty-five years writing best-selling and award-winning computer and design books, then formalized her lengthy independent study of Shakespeare with an MA in Shakespearean Authorship Studies and a Ph.D. in Shakespeare studies at Brunel University London. She has been an Honorary Trustee of the SAT since 2003, and now is a formal member of the Board of Trustees. Robin wrote Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare?, now in its third edition, and is the founder and president of the Mary Sidney Society. Robin encourages the long tradition of Shakespeare reading groups with https://ireadshakespeare.org/