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Video: Karl Sonnenberg

Shakespeare wrote 38 plays and 154 sonnets. It is a truth universally acknowledged that he is the greatest writer in English literature. Writers Bloc does not and would not dispute that. Shakespeare’s personal biography has mystified academics and armchair fans and experts for centuries. So what happens when a scholar, or an actor, or any authority, suggests that perhaps those immortal plays weren’t all written by Shakespeare? Was the author an anonymous aristocrat? Or a spy? Perhaps a woman?

We’ve been presented with alternatives of authorship over the past 400 years. Elizabeth Winkler, author of Shakespeare Was A Woman and Other Heresies, explores with humor, fun, and hell-bent detection, all sorts of possibilities. She will ruffle elite and rigid academic feathers, no question. Citing contradiction after contradiction about William Shakespeare from Stratford, Winkler cites poets, Supreme Court Justices, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Freud, and others, in probing the mystery of the author’s true identity. But that’s only part of it. Winkler does much more than suggest alternatives; she delves into why doubters have been castigated, and thrown to the literary curb . No matter what side you’re on, Shakespeare Was A Woman And Other Heresies is more than a detective book for fans of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets– it’s a fascinating and truly entertaining analysis of literary and cultural history.

Cathleen Schine is the author of many terrific (no, favorite!) novels that resonate with ardent Jane Austen lovers. Her novels explore the blessings–and burdens– of parents and siblings, and our often mysterious bonds to them. Schine’s novels are so delightful, and so deceptive– they linger within you long after you thought you had finished. Her latest is Kunstlers of Paradise.