Shakespeare: The Biography
Peter Ackroyd
Nan A. Talese/Doubleday (October 2005)

“Shakespeare is the only biographer of Shakespeare.” Ralph Waldo Emerson”

Peter Ackroyd suggests that Emerson’s remark “is one of those rare cases whose work is singularly important and influential, yet whose personality was not considered to be of any interest at all. He is obscure and elusive precisely to the extent that nobody bothered to write about him.”At least not until after his death in 1616.  Today, Amazon offers at least 156 biographies of Shakespeare and 50,000 volumes in which his life, works, and impact are their primary focus. The most valuable — and most entertaining — of them all is this biography by Ackroyd.

Here is a generally accepted timeline for Shakespeare’s life and work:

1564: Born in Stratford-upon-Avon
1582: Married Anne Hathaway
1583: Their first child, Susanna, was born
1585: Their twins, Judith and Hamnet, were born
Late-1580s: Shakespeare relocated to London from Stratford, leaving wife and three children behind
1592: He was first alluded to as a playwright, in Robert Greene’s Groats-worth of Witte

1594: His play, Titus Andronicus, was the first to appear in print
1596: His father, John Shakespeare, was granted a coat of arms; Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, died from plague
1597: He purchased New Place in Stratford-upon-Avon
1598: He was first mentioned as a sonneteer and author of 12 plays in Palladis Tamia
1599: His father was granted a confirmation of arms; Shakespeare’s acting company took down its old theater and used the timber to build the Globe

1601: His father, John Shakespeare, died
1603: Shakespeare’s acting company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, became the King’s Men at the accession of James I; Hamlet appeared in print
1607: His daughter Susanna married John Hall
1609: His Sonnets appears in print
1613: He purchased the Blackfriars gatehouse in London; the Globe burned down during a performance of Henry VIII. First Folio is published; Shakespeare’s widow Anne died

1616: Shakespeare died at the age of 52 on April 23, which was probably his birthday. Left a legacy of at least 37 plays, 154 sonnets, three poems, hundreds of neologisms, and an unsurpassed impact on art, culture and language throughout the Western world.

Ackroyd responds to all of the questions that I had in mind when I first began reading his book. For example:

o Who and what had the greatest impact on Shakespeare’s personal growth and professional development?

o Why did he relocate from Stratford to London in the late 1680s?

o He was among the wealthiest of all the playwrights throughout the Elizabethan Age. What specifically did that wealth consist of? What does it reveal about his personality and character?

o What is most important to know about the personal as well as professional perils and opportunities in England, (especially in London) during the years of her reign, 1558-1603?

o Why do Shakespeare’s life and work continue to have such great appeal and value to so many people throughout the world?

As indicated previously, there are several outstanding biographies of William Shakespeare. With all due respect to them, none offers material that is more entertaining as well as more informative than what Peter Ackroyd shares in this single and singular volume.

Bravo!