North by Shakespeare by Michael Blanding

North by Shakespeare by Michael Blanding

The true story of a self-taught sleuth's quest to prove his eye-opening theory about the source of the world's most famous plays, taking readers inside the vibrant era of Elizabethan England as well as the contemporary scene of Shakespeare scholars and obsessives.

What if Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare . . . but someone else wrote him first? Acclaimed author of The Map Thief, Michael Blanding presents the twinning narratives of renegade scholar Dennis McCarthy and Elizabethan courtier Sir Thomas North. Unlike those who believe someone else secretly wrote Shakespeare, McCarthy argues that Shakespeare wrote the plays, but he adapted them from source plays written by North decades before.

In Shakespeare's Shadow alternates between the enigmatic life of North, the intrigues of the Tudor court, the rivalries of English Renaissance theater, and academic outsider McCarthy's attempts to air his provocative ideas in the clubby world of Shakespearean scholarship. Through it all, Blanding employs his keen journalistic eye to craft a captivating drama, upending our understanding of the beloved playwright and his "singular genius."

Winner of the 2021 International Book Award in Narrative Non-Fiction

Michael Blanding and Alexandra Hall met working five feet from each other as editors at Boston Magazine, where Alex covered food and fashion and Michael wrote about politics and crime. Since then, they've traveled the world together, dodging bicycles on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, breaking an axle on a safari in South Africa, and closing out nightclubs in Reykjavik, Paris, and Buenos Aires (not an easy feat!). But wherever their travels have taken them, they've always loved returning to New England for its mix of natural beauty and enlightened culture. Michael and Alex pride themselves on having driven, hiked, canoed, or sailed every corner of the six-state region, ferreting out underrated restaurants, backwoods museums, and hidden villages along the way.

Alex grew up on Boston's South Shore and studied at Wheaton College and Le Cordon Bleu Institute in Paris. After years as a senior editor for both Boston Magazine and dailycandy.com, she became creator and editor of Fashion Boston magazine at The Boston Globe. Her most recent venture is the launch of her own digital lifestyle magazine, COUP Boston. Michael grew up west of Boston, attended Williams College, and was a staff writer and editor at Boston Magazine for five years. Now a freelance magazine writer, he has also taught journalism at Emerson College, Northeastern University, and Tufts University. He recently published his first book of investigative non-fiction, The Coke Machine: The Dirty Truth Behind the World's Favorite Soft Drink, and is currently at work on a true crime book called The Map Thief that will be published in 2013.

Together, Alex and Michael have written for publications including Conde Nast Traveler, Bon Appetit, Town & Country Travel, New England Travel, Yankee, Boston Magazine, Elle Decor, Continental, Business Traveler, The Nation, The New Republic, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and AlterNet. They were married on the rustic shores of Maine's Moosehead Lake, where Michael wore a kilt and Alex donned red heels and white feathers. They now live in the Boston suburb of Brookline with their cat, Isabella, and their seven-year-old son Zachary and six-year-old daughter Cleo, who have fast become two of the best-traveled kids in the world.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780316493246
ISBN 10	0316493244
Title	North by Shakespeare
Author	Michael Blanding
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Hachette Books
Year published	2021-03-30
Number of pages	480
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.