Contested Will / James Shapiro

Contested Will: who wrote Shakespeare? by James Shapiro. 339 p.

Yes, I read this because of that stupid new movie Anonymous, which claims "Shakespeare" was Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford, illegitimate son (and incestuous lover) of Elizabeth. Turns out that the movie makers didn't invent that theory; it's the "Prince Tudor II" version of the Oxfordian thesis.

Shapiro (who believes that Shakespeare was, well, Shakespeare) is less concerned with discussing all of the candidates and more interested in discussing the cultural circumstances that lead people to insist that Shakespeare must have been someone other than an actor named Will. He does discuss Bacon and Oxford as candidates along the way, as well as famous supporters of the theories. But the cultural discussions and expectations of authorship are the core of the book, which I really enjoyed.

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