James shapiro follows his award-winning book on William Shakespeare, "1599", which came out in 2005, with an unlikely subject: an investigation into the old chestnut that Shakespeare wasn't the man who wrote the works.rnMost mainstream Shakespeareans stand aloof from it. But apparently the claims of Francis Bacon, Edward de Vere and Christopher Marlowe, among others, are on the rise. An appetite for conspiracy theories, combined with a call for "balance" from some sectors of academe and the rise of the internet have given the thing new life. Respectable audiences turn up to listen to lectures on it. The controversy is even taught at university level. "What difference does it make who wrote the plays?" someone asked the author wearily. Mr Shapiro (for whom Shakespeare was definitely the man) thinks it matters a lot, and by the end of this book, his readers will think so too.
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