Monday, November 20, 2006

New book on Mary Sidney as author!

A new book has just come out about Mary Sidney as author of the Shakespearean works! Fred Faulkes, a librarian in Vancouver, has just published the first of fifteen volumes, called Tiger's Heart in Woman's Hide. I'm part way through the book, and I'm impressed with his work. His entire collection of fifteen volumes will take him a while to produce in its entirety, but will, I believe, be a most invaluable contribution to this Shakespearean authorship question.

"After an exhaustive trawl through the Elizabethan archives, [Fred Faulkes] is surprised to discover that the question of Shakespeare’s authorship was alive right from the very beginning and would thereafter feature regularly in the satirical press. Yes, there was an actor by the name of William Shakspere but behind him, doing the writing, there appears to have been a woman." And that woman, of course, is Mary Sidney.

It is so exciting, and very confirming, that others have independently come to the same conclusion. Fred is actively encouraging others to pursue this possibility, and so are we all at the Mary Sidney Society. I'll be posting a list of things that would be good starting points for further inquiry.