The Shakespeare Authorship Question for Absolute Beginners, Lazy Louts & Knotty-Pated Knaves is a clear, concise and humorous examination of the centuries-old controversial Shakespeare authorship question for both novices and the knowledgeable alike. Using primary source documents and contemporary testimony, Kennedy Center award-winning author Ron Destro attempts to prove that the man from Stratford-upon-Avon could not have been the author of history’s greatest literary works, while then exposing the true hidden author after dissecting Bacon, mulling Marlowe, and verifying Vere. This is accomplished after full consideration of the opinions and findings of such notables as Mark Twain, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Henry James, Anne Rice, Malcolm X, Helen Keller, Sigmund Freud, John Dover Wilson, Northrop Fry, Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles, Derek Jacobi, Mark Rylance, Jeremy Irons, Kristin Linklater, Robin Williams, Keanu Reeves, and several U.S. Supreme Court Justices. This book is written from an Oxfordian perspective.
“Insightful and hilarious.” - author Hank Whittemore.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It will inspire a new generation.” - actor/director Richard Clifford.
“Great fun! Knowledgeable and entertaining.” - Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship past president Bob Meyers.
“So clear and fascinating. Essential reading!” - poet/filmmaker Amanda Eliasch.
“I have been a friend of Ron Destro for some time and can confirm his great gifts as a writer and director. His research on this controversial subject is as extensive as his knowledge is broad.” - actor Michael York.
“I find myself maddened and bewildered. Preposterous, snobbish and bizarre.” - actor Stephen Fry.
“Five years of Shakespeare studies down the toilet!” - lecture attendee.
Ron Desto is a proud dad and an award-winning author, actor, and director. He and his Shakespearean novel, The Starre, the Moone, the Sunne, with audiobook narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi, have been named Best New Author, Book of the Year 2nd Runner-Up, Audiobook of the Year, and Hawthorne Prize Finalist. He received the Kennedy Center New American Play Award for Hiroshima, for which Yoko Ono wrote the music when it was presented off-Broadway. He runs the nonprofit Oxford Shakespeare Company, which offers masterclasses and trains actors, having performed over 50 plays in their historic locations like Elsinore and Birnam Wood. Destro is the editor of The Shakespeare Masterclasses book of interviews and has lectured on the authorship question at Harvard, Chautauqua, Stratford-upon-Avon, and the Edinburgh Skeptics Society. He is featured in the Shakespeare documentary, THE TRUTH WILL OUT.
