James Shapiro and the “Notorious Hyphen,” Part II

Roger Stritmatter | April 18, 2010

Yesterday we took a long hard look at James Shapiro’s faux pas in claiming, in Contested Will, that the first appearance of the name Shakespeare in print, on the dedicatory page of the first edition of Venus and Adonis (1593), is hyphenated.
It’s not.

We also saw that Shapiro builds on this misconception to create an [...]

James Shapiro and Hunt for the “Notorious Hyphen”

Roger Stritmatter | April 18, 2010

In case you were wondering if the internet is going to make us any smarter, the evidence is now in.
The answer is, “no” – at least if one may draw any conclusion from the depressingly conformist hallelujah chorus which has issued from so many mass media internet reviewers in response to [...]

Greetings in the Spring

Roger Stritmatter | March 5, 2010

The snow is nearly melted in Baltimore, and after a full week’s redress from the busy schedule of classes at Coppin State University, during which we huddled next to the heaters while the February blizzard pounded us for several days, or so it seemed, we are by now almost poised for spring break.  In the [...]

“A Matter of Style”: An Oxfordian Challenge

Roger Stritmatter | January 3, 2010

This blog is the second entry in my “Unsung Heroes” Series: it is dedicated to William Plumer Fowler (1901-1993) — poet, lawyer, and Shakespearean heretic.
From its inception in 1920, the case for Oxford’s authorship of the Shakespearean canon has been supported by stylistic analysis of the poetry and prose surviving under de Vere’s own name.
In [...]

Your Majesty’s Most Humble Servant: The Earl of Oxford’s Last Letter

Roger Stritmatter | December 21, 2009

As some readers are aware,  a question lurks over the de Vere Bible: who is responsible for the handwriting — and therefore the underlining and other notations –  it contains?  Contradictory statements by some scholars dedicated to the traditional view of Shakespearean authorship have confused the issue.
In the coming weeks, therefore, I will be [...]

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Keir Cutler Ph. D. performs Mark Twain's "Is Shakespeare Dead?"

Cutler debunks the still-living myth that Shakespeare wrote the works of "Shakespeare."

"A magnificently witty performance!" (Winnipeg Sun). "Highly entertaining and engrossing!" (EYE Weekly). "Is Shakespeare Dead? marshals startling facts into an elegant and often tenacious argument that floats on a current of delicious irony" (Montreal Gazette).


About the author

Roger Stritmatter

Roger Stritmatter is an Associate Professor of Humanities at Coppin State University and the General Editor of Brief Chronicles: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Authorship Studies.