Biography Of Shakespeare

No Conspiracies, no speculation, just the documented proof that Sir Thomas North wrote the plays and that Shakespeare merely adapted them for the public stage. Yes, Shakespeare wrote everything clearly attributed to him while he was alive; yes, all the Shakespeare-era title pages were correct; but as "North of Shakespeare" shows, most of the plays attributed to Shakespeare during his lifetime and even up until 1620 are not the same plays that everyone now believes he wrote. "North of Shakespeare," written by the acclaimed scholar-author of "Here Be Dragons" (Oxford University Press -- 2009), exposes extraordinary, documented information that overturns everything we had once believed about Shakespeare. Specifically, a thorough analysis of seven rare documents has confirmed that the impoverished, war-weary scholar-knight, Sir Thomas North, was the one who actually penned the original “Shakespearean” masterpieces and that Shakespeare had merely adapted North's plays for the public stage. Moreover, a careful examination of the actual title pages of the dramas published while Shakespeare was alive and even up until 1620 -- combined with a study of all relevant comments from his contemporaries -- reconfirms this same fact. The true story of North and Shakespeare, unlike all other speculations over authorship, whether put forth by orthodox scholars or intelligent dissidents, is devoid of all conspiracies, hypothetical behind-the-scenes-intrigue, or outlandish and dastardly motives. What remains is one exceedingly simple explanation, confirmed repeatedly by numerous documents and multiple lines of evidence, that unknots confusion, settles the paradoxes, and, once and for all, solves the mystery of Shakespeare. With Dennis McCarthy's first book, "Here Be Dragons / How the Study of Animal and Plant Distributions Revolutionized Our Views of Life and Earth" (Oxford UP, 2009), many reviewers highlighted the book's power to transform the way we see the world: "The Huffington Post" described it as "a grand time-and-space voyage of the imagination," concluding that "at the end of the book you will be someone different." "Science News" referred to the work as "fascinating and revelatory." And "Science Magazine" declared, "[W]e will never look at the world in the same way again." McCarthy has also published revealing papers in the leading journals of English literature, geophysics, and biogeography. In a 2007 paper for "The Journal of Geophysical Research," McCarthy became the first researcher to provide the correct explanation for the global distribution of continents and oceans. This became the subject of a number of major news reports around the globe, and "Der Spiegel" noted that the "study surprises the professional world." More recently, McCarthy's 2009 paper for Oxford's "Notes and Queries" was the first to identify the long-sought source for Hamlet's famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy. McCarthy will now transform our view of Shakespeare in the same way that his past works have helped change our views on the history of life and Earth. ["North of Shakespeare / The Secrets of the Sonnets" will be published on Kindle in the Autumn of 2011]

Amazon Sales Rank: #126754 in eBooks Published on: 2011-06-22 Released on: 2011-06-22 Format: Kindle eBook Number of items: 1

About the Author Dennis McCarthy is the author of the critically acclaimed science book, "Here Be Dragons / How the study of animal and plant distributions revolutionized our views of life and Earth" (2009, Oxford University Press.) He also may be the only researcher to have published papers in the leading journals of such widely divergent subjects as English literature, geophysics, and biogeography. In a 2007 paper for "The Journal of Geophysical Research", McCarthy became the first researcher to provide the correct explanation for the global distribution of continents and oceans. This became the subject of a number of news reports around the globe, and "Der Spiegel" noted that the “study surprises the professional world.” Most recently, McCarthy has published a series of articles on Shakespeare and Elizabethan literature in Oxford’s prestigious journal, "Notes and Queries". These papers form the prelude to "North of Shakespeare", with each work establishing an important element of its proof. The latest paper, in 2009, was the first to identify Thomas North’s "Dial of Princes" as the long-sought source for Hamlet’s immortal “To be or not to be” soliloquy. Dennis McCarthy is a scientific researcher with the Buffalo Museum of Science and sits on the editorial board of "Biogeography & Systematics."

Most helpful customer reviews 8 of 9 people found the following review helpful. A worthy addition to Shakespeare authorship literature By Steve My interest in Shakespeare began in college when I took a couple classes and continued afterward as I became more and more interested in the Shakespeare authorship question. While knowing who wrote the works isn't necessary to enjoy them, it can add a whole new layer of understanding to the themes, characters and events. My main problem with most Shakespeare authorship books, whether they focus on a particular other author or several, is that inevitably you get to a point where it simply doesn't make sense. Whether it's a matter of timelines not matching up or shoehorning a person into a place they don't belong, every suspected alternate has holes in their story. As I read North of Shakespeare, however, every question I seemed to have was eventually answered in a satisfying manner, with plenty of background and independent cited works to support the theory. I'm eagerly anticipating the follow up works on Thomas North's life and on the sonnets, as I feel that the case will only be getting stronger, and I'd love to see Stratfordians and others respond to many of the surprising developments within the book. Highly recommended to anyone interested in the Shakespeare authorship question or his works as a whole! 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. What the thinker thinks, the prover proves. By L. Power Two months ago I saw the movie Anonymous. Previously, I was unaware of a debate about Shakespeare's authorship, or the various conspiracy theories.No real question of Shakespeare's authorship arose during his lifetime, not until nearly two centuries after his death. A writer, Delia Bacon proposed that Sir Francis Bacon her namesake authored all of Shakespeare's works. A Bacon proposing Bacon, hmm? But why would an already famous author who continued to live after Shakespeare, and in fact was still alive in 1623 when Shakespeare's first folio was published posthumously, give another writer credit for his work, or not at least stake his own claim for posterity, if he wrote the work, before he died in 1626.The other favorite was the Earl of Oxford. He died in 1604 before many of Shakespeare's plays were written and performed, and having read a number of his poems, other than one about a tennis game, the language, meter and style is totally different from Shakespeare. Unless he has written material of the same standard and quality of Shakespeare, and that could be demonstrated, I would not consider him a viable candidate, even if his life experiences fit the bill. For example, Oxfordians claim he murdered a servant when he was 17, saying that he used this when writing Hamlet. However, the source story of Hamlet, by Saxo Grammaticus which predates De Vere by several hundred years relates the exact same incident used by Shakespeare in the play.Another possibility was Christopher Marlowe, who, if you read his work, his style resembles Shakespeare, he did write both poems and plays, was a highly successful playwright, even born in the same year as Shakespeare, occasionally indistinguishable in quality from Shakespeare. Shakespeare used a line from Marlowe in As You Like It, 'whoever loves that loved not at first sight.' Unfortunately, he was murdered in 1593 in a knife fight, putting a premature end to a promising career.Now Dennis McCarthy proposes Sir Thomas North as the person who wrote Shakespeare. Here is a viable and realistic candidate, not previously considered. Writers acknowledge Shakespeare used North's translation of Plutarch's lives as a source for several of his plays, including Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, and Troilus and Cressida. In fact, passages used in Shakespeare's plays directly parallel passages in North's work, word for word with only minor amendments to convert from prose to verse, and minor style adjustments. So we can say with authority