Books on the Shakespeare Authorship Question

*Who Wrote Shakespeare?

  • Author: John Michell
  • Published: Thames & Hudson Ltd. 1996, 1999.
  • Details: Hard cover (96). Paperback (99). 272pp.
  • ISBN: 0500281130
  • Summary: An excellent and impartial look at the Shakespearean Authorship Question, arguments for and against the Stratford man, and a detailed survey of the main (and minor) claimants, including Marlowe.
  • Reviews: Richmond Review; Shakespeare Oxford Society Newsletter; Francis Carr (Baconiana).
  • Buy Online: BetterWorldBooks; Hive; Wordery.

 Who Wrote Shakespeare? by John Michell

*Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?

 Contested Will by James Shapiro

*Shakespeare’s Unorthodox Biography

  • Author: Diana Price
  • Published: Greenwood Press, 2000.
  • Details: Hardback. 376pp.
  • ISBN: 0313312028
  • Summary: Undertake a comparative analysis with other literary biographies, and considers potential conflicts between biographical, personality, literary, dramatic, and cultural evidence. Not driven by allegiance to any candidate, this is a good introduction as to why doubts persist about the Stratford man as author.
  • Reviews: Book’s website; Interview; Tom Veal; Greenwood.
  • Buy Online: BetterWorldBooks; Wordery.

 Shakespeare's Unorthodox Biography by Diana Price

*The Marlowe Papers

 The Marlowe Papers by Ros Barber

Marlowe’s Ghost: The Blacklisting of the Man Who Was Shakespeare

  • Author: Daryl Pinksen
  • Published: iUniverse.com publishing. June 2008.
  • Details: Hard cover & paperback. 288pp.
  • ISBN: 0595711413 [HB]; 0595475140 [PB]
  • Website: www.marlowesghost.com
  • Summary: Examines the events in Deptford and the fact that plays, “so undeniably similar to Marlowe’s” and yet attributed to Shakespeare, began to appear on the London stage shortly afterwards. Explores “the possibility that persecution of a writer who dared to question authority may have led to the greatest literary cover-up of all time”.
  • Buy Online: Hard cover: BetterWorldBooks; Hive; Wordery. Paperback: BetterWorldBooks; Hive; Wordery.

 Marlowe's Ghost: The Blacklisting of the Man Who Was Shakespeare by Daryl Pinksen

The Marlowe-Shakespeare Connection

  • Author: Samuel L. Blumenfeld
  • Published: McFarland & Company Inc. June 2008.
  • Details: Paperback. 368pp.
  • ISBN: 0786439025
  • Video: Watch Blumenfeld speak about his book.
  • Discussion: See the book’s Blogspot.
  • Summary: Offers “a daring solution” to the Authorship question; that Marlowe faked his own death at Deptford with help from the government, and continued writing under the pseudonym of Shakespeare. Includes two interesting illustrations of Marlowe and Shakespeare. [Table of Contents]
  • Buy Online: BetterWorldBooks; Hive; Wordery.

 The Marlowe-Shakespeare Connection: A New Study of the Authorship Question by Samuel L. Blumenfeld

The Marlowe-Shakespeare Continuum: Christopher Marlowe and the Authorship of Early Shakespeare & Anonymous Plays.

  • Author: Donna Murphy
  • Published: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015
  • Details: Paperback. 224pp.
  • ISBN-10: 1443877700; ISBN-13: 978-1443877701
  • Summary: Provides linguistic evidence for the theory that Marlowe pretended to die to avoid execution as a heretic, then used Stratfordian actor Shakspere as a front man to submit his work.
  • Buy Online: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

 The Marlowe-Shakespeare Continuum: Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, and the Authorship of Early Shakespeare and Anonymous Plays by Donna Murphy

Marlowe Up Close: An Unconventional Biography with A Scrapbook of His Ciphers

  • Author: Roberta Ballantine
  • Published: Xlibris Corporation Dec 2007.
  • Details: Hard cover: 1425743811.
    Paperback: 1425743803. 688pp.
  • Reviews: Up Close Site; Xlibris.
  • Summary: Very detailed biography posits some new information about Marlowe “masterfully fused from increments of factual evidence” which are “corroborated by surprising steganographic messages” found by Society member Ballantine in Marlowe’s work. [Read Excerpt]
  • Buy Online: BetterWorldBooks; Hive; Wordery.

 Marlowe Up Close by Roberta Ballantine

Shake-speare’s Voyage to America

  • Author: Christopher Gamble
  • Published: Capella Archive, November 2005.
  • Details: Hard cover & Paperback. 150pp.
  • ISBN: 1902918231 [HB]; 1902918320 [PB]
  • Summary: Society member purports that Marlowe survived 1593 and 16 years later was aboard the flag-ship Sea Venture sunk off Bermuda, an experience used in The Tempest. Gamble also applies new evidence to decrypt the Sonnets’ Dedication. See also a Publisher’s Synopsis, plus Contents List and 2 chapter excerpt.
  • Buy Online: Capella Archive.

Shake-speare's Voyage to America by Christopher Gamble

  • * Recommended as indispensible reading.