Synopsis
The origin of this little volume stems from two interests of mine: the authorship question of the works of Shakespeare and the history of Maryland, the state in which I live. I have been a proponent of Edward DeVere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, since the mid-1970s after reading an article by Charlton Ogburn in Harvard Magazine. I moved to Maryland around the same time and became intrigued with its history, something I have done every place I have lived, whether Massachusetts, Switzerland, or the Philippines. In this case my two interests happily combined since the roots of Maryland extend back into 16th century England. As I delved more into the Shakespeare authorship issue, my friend Joe Sobran, author of Alias Shakespeare, told me he thought the answer was in the sonnets. I read all 154 of them closely and decided I should try to write some myself. In the process, I found I was walking iambic pentameter and ended up writing almost 2,000 sonnets! I even paraphrased about a third of the 154 Shakespeare sonnets and rewrote them without the particular Shakespearean imagery. At the same time I was teaching literature at Brookewood School, which I founded, and was reading the great epics of the Western tradition and realizing that much smaller epics were written in Elizabethan times. I decided I would try to write such a small epic about the Founding of Maryland as a sonnet sequence, combining all I had learned about Maryland from my activities as co-chair of my county’s committee celebrating the 350th anniversary of Maryland in 1984 and as a commissioner of Historic St. Mary’s City and in other roles and as well as from my personal reading and exploration. I was particularly inspired by Father Andrew White’s “Relatio Itineris ad Marylandiam,” his account of the voyage to Maryland, and his annual letters to Rome. For those newer to Maryland history, I hope you enjoy learning more about the founding of Maryland in this volume of sonnets. For those who are already history buff s, enjoy traveling through Maryland’s founding through the adventure of sonnets.
About the Author
Joseph W. McPherson is working to found Dominion Hall, an international boarding school in the Catholic and liberal arts tradition in South Central Virginia. He also founded Brookewood School, an independent Catholic school for girls, grades 1-12, a coordinate school to The Avalon School for boys. He was headmaster of The Heights School in Potomac, MD, and The American School in Switzerland, Lugano, Switzerland. He has also been on the Board of Chelsea Academy in Front Royal, VA, since its founding. He served on the Historic St. Mary's City Commission and speaks frequently and writes on Maryland history. He was educated at Harvard College and Georgetown Law School. He and his wife Madlyn, a teacher, have six children and twelve grandchildren.
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