Every year or so this same issue is brought up: did Shakespeare really write all those plays and poems? 2007 is no different, except for one thing, Britain’s top Shakespearean actors have put forth a "Declaration of Reasonable Doubt" that seeks to breathe new life into this old debate:

Acclaimed actor Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance, the former artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe Theater in London, unveiled a "Declaration of Reasonable Doubt" on the authorship of Shakespeare’s work Saturday, following the final matinee of "I am Shakespeare," a play investigating the bard’s identity, in Chichester, southern England.

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Have you ever wondered if well-known, classic authors would be able to get published today? One man attempted to find out for himself. David Lassman tried an experiment where he would send out manuscripts of some of Jane Austen’s most timeless work, with a few minor changes. The experiment’s premise is that in todays publishing world, where blockbusters and marketability are everything, someone like Austen wouldn’t stand a chance of landing a publishing contract. Here’s what happened:

After making only minor changes, he sent off opening chapters and plot synopses to 18 of the UK’s biggest publishers and agents. He was amazed when they all sent the manuscripts back with polite but firm "no-thank-you’s" and almost all failed to spot that he was ripping off one of the world’s most famous literary figures.

Now remember that Jane Austen isn’t only known to the literary elite. And as the article from the Guardian Unlimited points out, her books have withstood the test of time and have sold millions of copies. Not to mention all the movie adaptations made from her writing. Jane Austen is definitely a literary powerhouse.

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His poems became minor classics. They were published in anthologies and young kids would memorize his poems at school. This could almost describe any of the several well-known poets we are all familiar with today, right? Wrong! The poet I’m refering to is Stalin.

That’s right, before Stalin became the ruthless dictator, he was very interested in poetry and literature in general. According to an article published by the Guardian Unlimted, Stalin’s interest in poetry did not die down after he became a dicatator:

The poems’ romantic imagery is derivative, but their beauty lies in the rhythm and language. Poetry remained a part of Stalin’s life right up to and even during his three decades as tyrant, leading him to protect some poets and destroy others.

At the time Stalin was writing poetry, modernism was becoming en vogue among the literati. But the young dicatator had other theories in mind when working on his own verse:

The ex-romantic poet despised and destroyed modernism, but promoted socialist realism, his distorted version of romanticism. He knew Nekrasov and Pushkin by heart, read Goethe and Shakespeare in translation, and could recite Walt Whitman.

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443 years ago, a man was born that would change the face of English literature, and even the English language as we know it. That’s right, today is Shakespeare’s birthday! Although new evidence the Bard might have been born on April 22, instead of the 23, I’m going to stick with the traditional date for now.

I’m not going to expand anymore on Shakespeare’s life or works because volumes upon volumes upon volumes have been written about both – there’s no reason to try and re-invent the wheel. But more importantly, his works speak better for themselves than I ever could.

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I came across this article over a month ago and it sat in my "favorites" folder since then because I kinda forgot about it. But the other day I was going through all the links I had stored to try to clean them out, and I saw this article again.

The gist of the article is that schools in Britain are turning away free classics books because they figure students will find them boring and difficult! I couldn’t believe it when I read the story.Here’s a short excerpt:

Around 50 schools have refused to stock literary works by the likes of Jane Austen, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens after admitting that youngsters also find them boring.

If students are finding these works boring and difficult, then the schools are not doing a good enough job teaching them. I admit, even I can find Shakespeare boring if the professor just stands in front of the class and lectures for an hour – and renaissance literature is my concentration for my degree program!

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I’m sure everyone has heard of Disney Land, and even Disney World. But what about DIckens World? No, it’s not some fly-by-night roadside attraction meant to milk money from wary travellers, rather, it’s a real theme park in the UK based on the works of the immortal Victorian novelist Charles Dickens!

But to appreciate Dickens World, one must understand how Dickens himself was viewed in his own time, while he was still alive:

With his long hair, bushy beard and fancy waistcoats, Dickens was the closest the 19th century had to a pop star. There were more than 200 different images of the author in circulation while he was alive, making him instantly recognisable. He was a celebrity, says Paul Schlicke, author of Dickens and Popular Entertainment. "When he first went to America in 1842 he was greeted that way. His trip there was rather like the Beatles going to New York more than a century later."

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Raise your hand if you have ever, either in school or for fun, have read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I’m going to assume that most (but not all) have at least read it, and if not, then are at least familiar with the classic gothic novel. Even if you haven’t read the novel itself, there is still a chance you have seen one of the many movie adaptations inspired by the novel (I say "inspired" because most are just plain bad).

I bring this up because I just read an article that is placing the authorship of Frankenstein into question. In other words, at least one man is saying that Mary Shelley did not write  her masterpiece! This article is, in fact, an early review of a book by John Lauritsen called The Man Who Wrote Frankenstein, a book set to be published in the US sometime next month.

It appears the Lauritsen has a beef with radical feminists because they tend to overwhelm the world of literary academia, when in his mind, more attention should be given to gay activism. So right away we see a political motive to debunk the authorship of Mary Shelley.

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