These are enhanced by sample passages from early modern England writers, together with reproductions of pages from the original texts.

This volume presents a study of the changing images and differing ways that the life of English poet and playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) has been interpreted throughout history.

With great lucidity and wit, Anonymity tells the stories of these and many other writers, providing a fast-paced, entertaining, and informative tour through the history of English literature.

An abridged edition that will remain the standard biography for many years.

"The book trade, she argues, created many intriguing and paradoxical uses for anonymity, even as the authorial name became more marketable.

It successfully argues that "William Shakespeare" was the pen name of an aristocrat, and that William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon was a shrewd entrepreneur, not a dramatist."--BOOK JACKET.