Hello.

Welcome to the homepage for “Shakespeare” By Another Name, the newly published epic biography of an Elizabethan courtly poet-playwright named Edward de Vere. Now (as of August 2006) available in paperback!

The cover image summarizes the book's theme succinctly: On the left is the “Ashbourne Portrait of Shakespeare.” On the right is a portrait of Edward de Vere. This split image of what is clearly the same face leads one into the heart of the “Shakespeare” mystery.

Weaving together a wealth of evidence uncovered in more than ten years of research, “Shakespeare” By Another Name brings to life the colorful figure of Edward de Vere whose life story presents countless mirror images in The Bard's plays and poems. “Shakespeare” By Another Name also assembles literally hundreds of sometimes overlooked and sometimes entirely new pieces of evidence that point toward the remarkable conclusion that Edward de Vere was “Shakespeare.”

“Deserves serious attention,”

says The New York Times of “Shakespeare” By Another Name.

“Fresh, original research,”

says The Boston Globe.

“Makes a convincing argument that the brilliant, rather tormented Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford—not Shakespeare—was the dramatist ... draws powerful connections between Shakespeare's plays and the life of de Vere,”

says USA Today.

“Makes a compelling case... Especially impressive,”

says The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“Quite a compelling argument,”

says The Chicago Sun-Times.

“A wake-up call!”

says Kristin Linklater, professor of Theatre Arts at Columbia University.

“A model of in-depth research, closely reasoned argument, and fine writing,”

says Don Ostrowski, lecturer in European history at Harvard University.

“One of the very best whodunnits you will ever read,”

says the acclaimed Shakespearean actor Sir Derek Jacobi, who wrote the book's foreword.

“Shakespeare” By Another Name is, simply, the first ever popular literary biography of “Shakespeare”—as the Bard's identity is coming to be recognized in the epic life of Edward de Vere.

If you'd like to hear some of the remarkable mysteries and compelling stories of this book, you may want to start here. (I can't help but hope you'll eventually find your way here.)

“Shakespeare” By Another Name: The Life of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, The Man Who Was Shakespeare is published by Gotham Books/Penguin Group USA in North America (hardback 2005, paperback Aug. 2006). The foreword, as noted above, is by Sir Derek Jacobi.

      —Mark Anderson