The cave at Milford Haven

People always ask me how things might change if it turns out to be proven that Mary Sidney wrote the works attributed to Shakespeare. I do believe we certainly won’t lose anything—and we will gain so much. It’s very satisfying to connect an author with the works.
 
Here’s a very simple example. Dorothy Parker wrote an epigram that goes like this: Guns aren't lawful; nooses give; gas smells awful; you might as well live. Now, that’s a odd little piece, but it becomes much more interesting when you learn that Dorothy Parker tried to commit suicide at least four times.
 
It’s always been sad that don’t have that opportunity with Shakespeare; we haven’t been able to connect anything in William Shakespeare’s life with this rich, emotional, powerful body of work. Here’s a minor example of how interesting it could be when linking Mary Sidney Herbert, the Countess of Pembroke, to the plays:
 
In the Shakespearean play Cymbeline, the heroine, Imogen, runs away to Wales, specifically to the town of Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire. Milford Haven is mentioned by name fifteen times. There is a cave in Milford Haven where two young men were raised (Imogen’s brothers, who were stolen at birth); the cave is mentioned almost a dozen times. This all becomes much more interesting when you realize that in the town of Milford Haven there really is a cave. Access to the cave is through Pembroke Castle, Mary Sidney's estate. From inside the castle, you climb down fifty steps into a cave that opens out to a view of the river.
 
What a delightful treat to go exploring the castle and cave knowing that she was there and that this spot inspired the play Cymbeline!

A good listener?

I recently returned from Chicago, New York City, and Portland, Oregon after a spate of discussions, book signings, and radio interviews. The radio show in Chicago with Milt Rosenberg included Peter Holland, a British professor of Shakespeare teaching here in America at Notre Dame. When a caller asked how William Shakespeare acquired the amazing range of knowledge shown in the plays, Holland said “I believe Shakespeare was a good listener.”
 
I think that’s so sad. It’s sad that Shakespeareans must denigrate the breadth and depth of the knowledge of this writer merely so they don’t have to explain where he came by such a wealth of book learning including study of rhetorical devices, languages, history, mythology, medicine, the classics, etc. “A good listener.” Sheesh. That’s like saying Albert Einstein or Marie Curie did what they did by being good listeners.
 
How much more satisfying and inspiring it will be when we can take a close look at the education of this writer. It might help us gain a sense of how she came to do what she did; we might better comprehend how these plays developed and gain a clearer understanding of how the knowledge in them was transmuted into such art. Then we can begin to more fully understand and appreciate the brilliance of the mind that wrote them. That would be much more satisfying than pathetically believing the writer was merely “a good listener.”

Sidney Supper 2006!

We have chosen a date for the Sidney Supper! Saturday, October 21, here in Santa Fe. All are welcome to attend! Details will be forthcoming over the future months, but we hope you put the date on your calendar! The event is a grand affair, modeled after the Burns Suppers, with food and libations, ceremony, a pageant -- honoring Mary Sidney Herbert, the Countess of Pembroke and the possibility that she wrote the works attributed to Shakespeare.

Mary Sidney—She's the Man

Last week I had a discussion and book signing at Garcia Street Books in Santa Fe, and it was so great. There were about 60 people and the store sold out of 55 books. Which is particularly wonderful because it’s my home town and because you never know if anyone’s going to show up for a book signing. Worse than no one showing up is when one person shows up, which is what happened in Cupertino many years ago. Cupertino, of all places, where Apple lives. One person showed up and it was mortally humiliating, but worse, I heard through the years that this one person told everyone else that only one person showed up. sigh.
 
But the event in Santa Fe was wonderful and everyone was so supportive and everyone bought books. It gives me the courage to carry on.
 
Our new bumper sticker: Mary Sidney—she’s the man!

Get serious?

When I showed someone our invitation to the 2005 Sidney Supper, he read through it, paused for a moment while pondering his thought, trying to figure out how to say this politely, then murmured, “Um, this isn’t very . . . scholarly. It looks, well, like you don’t take yourselves very seriously.”

Isn’t that odd, that if it looks like you’re having a good time, it can’t be “scholarly” or “important” or “right.” That's exactly what happened when I wrote my first computer book—it was easy to read and easy to understand and it made you laugh here and there. So it couldn’t have been a good computer book! But some have claimed that it changed the direction of computer books. And it's sold more than a million copies.

Serious can often equal boring. “Wives may be merry and yet honest too.” The Mary Sidney Society, the book Sweet Swan of Avon, the board meetings, the Sidney Supper—not boring.

Authorship book has an authorship problem

If you’ve been looking for the book, Sweet Swan of Avon, by Robin Williams, you may have noticed that some bookstores have it listed as by Kim Brady! Somehow Kim’s name got in the Books-in-Print database and we’re having a hard time getting it out. I don’t even know who Kim Brady is! She wrote a book about scrapbooking for Peachpit and somehow her name got attached. But don’t worry—it’s the right book.

My new book, Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare, is now available at Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble, and independent bookstores everywhere!