Yea the illiterate, that know not how
To cipher what is writ in learned books
The Rape of Lucrece, lines 861-62
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Not everyone owns books. I won’t mention any names. I have a library full. Here are some that I think worthy of mention. No particular order.
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Shakespeare and Authorship:
• Dating Shakespeare’s Plays: A Critical Review of the Evidence [parapresspublishing.co.uk]
· Edited by Kevin Gilvary
· Parapress, 2010, paperback, 520 pages
· PDF files, free to download [datingshakespeare.co.uk]
14 March 2019: This eminently informative and thought-provoking reference is now available to download at no cost. Very generous of Mr Gilvary, the De Vere Society, and everyone else involved. See this post at the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship’s website for additional details. I also tweeted about it.
• The Shakepeare Guide to Italy: Retracing the Bard’s Unknown Travels [Google Books]
· by Richard Paul Roe
· HarperCollins, 2011, paperback, 309 pages
This excellent book doesn’t mention my name, but it doesn’t need to if your brain knows how to think for itself. If you believe that the overlaps between what of Italy is in Shakespeare, and where I went and what I did during my residence there in 1575-76, are unrelated and ignorable – while Willy never put so much as a toe in salt water – then thanks for stopping by, and have fun in Warwickshire or Washington.
• Sources of Shakespeare’s Works and Elizabethan Literature [elizabethanauthors.org]
· compiled by Barboura Flues and Robert Brazil ©2002
This isn’t one book, but a list of many that I used in my work – books that I owned or had private access to. Public access did not exist. Note in particular the list’s second section, Books that Shakespeare Read in Another Language. Indeed.
• Monty Python, Shakespeare, and English Renaissance Drama [mcfarlandbooks.com]
· by Darl Larsen
· McFarland & Co, 2003, paperback, 243 pages
Python is the second-best thing this realm has ever produced.
• “Shakespeare” Identified in Edward de Vere, the Seventeenth Earl of Oxford
· by J Thomas Looney
· Cecil Palmer, London, and Frederick A Stokes, New York, 1920, hardback, 551 pages
· reprinted by other American publishers in 1949 and 1975
· Centenary Edition, edited by James A Warren
· Forever Press, Somerville MA, 2018, paperback, 487 pages
· [Amazon UK | US]
SI was the first published work to connect my life with Shakespeare’s words, and to advocate the case for me as he. Looney (it’s LOW-nee, he was Manx) therefore holds pride of place in modern Oxfordianism. SI is not the smoothest read in terms of its style (oh those prolix Victorians), but it’s the book that opened the door to everything about me that has followed, including the website you’re now reading.
The Centenary Edition has updated the original’s punctuation and formatting (though not its text), and editor Warren has added references and a bibliography for a great many of Looney’s sources. It’s a welcome alternative to the Internet Archive’s scans of the old book, though the scans win the advantage on cost, not having any. But spend the money if you can. Your eyes will thank you, and you can write in the margins.
• The Mysterious William Shakespeare – The Myth & the Reality
· by Charlton Ogburn (Jr), foreword by David McCullough
· 1st edition: Dodd, Mead & Co, New York (1984), hardback, 892 pages
· 2nd edition: EPM Publications, McLean VA (1992), hardback, 892 pages
· new and used copies readily available
Dauntingly comprehensive study that brought my case up to date. Even dyed-in-the-wool Stratfordians can learn a lot about the Author from this book, and it’s a must-read for any more-than-casual Oxfordian. Worth the effort.
• “Shakespeare” By Another Name [shakespearebyanothername.com]
· by Mark Anderson (@markawriter)
· Gotham Books/Penguin Group USA, 2005, hardback, 640 pages
· also paperback, audiobook, and ebook formats
More details are given in my post Oh Put Me In Thy Bookes.
• This Star of England – “William Shake-speare” Man of the Renaissance
· by Dorothy and Charlton (Sr) Ogburn
· Coward-McCann, 1952, hardback, 1297 pages
· used copies at the usual suspects, varying condition and prices
· Online-readable at the HathiTrust Digital Library [hathitrust.org]. Single-page PDFs downloadable, whole-book PDF requires login
· First 50 chapters transcribed at sourcetext.com, with the remainder as raw page scans in downloadable chapter PDFs (presumably an unfinished project to transcribe the whole book)
• The Seventeenth Earl of Oxford, 1550–1604
· by Bernard M Ward
· John Murray, London, 1928, hardback, 408 pages
· used 1928 copies or 1979 reprints are hard to find, and very expensive
· the Internet Archive has a downloadable copy
See also Oh Put Me In Thy Bookes, which discusses both the Looney and Ward books in greater detail. With pictures.
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Poetry:
• The Life and Death of King Edward [Amazon UK | US]
· by Joshua Gray (@joshuagraypoet)
· Forever Press, 2017, paperback, 134 pages
· My comments: Book Review: Strong Stuff (28 Sept 2017)
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Fiction:
• The Lost Scrapbook / The Easy Chain / Flee [aurora148.com]
· by Evan Dara
· Aurora, 1995/2008/2013, paperbacks, 476/502/239 pages
• Cow Country [coweyepress.com]
· by Adrian Jones Pearson
· Cow Eye Press, 2015, hardback, 540 pages
· also paperback, audiobook, and ebook formats
• A Confederacy of Dunces [wikipedia.com]
· by John Kennedy Toole
· Louisiana State University Press, 1980 (written in 1963)
· numerous reprint editions and formats available at the usual sources
Ignatius J Reilly is the nearest thing I’ve seen to a modern Falstaff.
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Absent from my desk, not by my choice:
• My Bible – It belongs to me. I want it back.
· printed by John Crispin, Geneva
· MDLXX (1570)
· immured at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC, USA
photos courtesy of the Folger Shakespeare Library
I underlined Revelation 14:13 for a reason.
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VERO NIHIL VERIUS
