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Hunter commends Wall Street Journal

Note: On date below, I understand that although the article was available online on Friday 4/17/09, it wasn't actually published in print until Saturday 4/18/09. LT


Yesterday (4/17/09) the Wall Street Journal published an article by Jess Bravin titled:

Justice Steven's renders and opinion on who wrote Shakespeare's plays: It Wasn't the Bard of Avon, He Says, Evidence Is beyond a Reasonable Doubt


In response, Oberon Chairperson Tom Hunter sent this message --


To the Editor of the Wall Street Journal:

Thank you to reporter Jess Bravin and the Wall Street Journal for the news about the support of U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens for Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, as the true author under the pseudonym William Shakespeare of the works which have been attributed for 400 years to William Shaksper of Stratford-Upon-Avon.

The report is extremely relevant as hundreds of thousands of devoted Shakespeare fans around the world plan to celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday on April 23.  In Farmington, Michigan, our Oberon Shakespeare discussion group will be celebrating Shakespeare’s UNbirthday on that date, since Shaksper wasn’t Shakespeare and since the date, like almost everything about Shaksper, is just a guess.

Perhaps the most important element of your report is the quote by the professor of English and president of the Shakespeare Association of America, “Nobody gives any credence to these arguments,” which in fact expresses the academic community’s almost total ignorance of the issue. For her information, a vast amount of research has demonstrated that at the very least there is reasonable doubt as to the identity of the true author of the works of Shakespeare.  In fact, in your report, nine of 12 justices expressed reasonable doubt, including the five choosing not to declare for either candidate.

There will always be a Shakespeare, just as there will always be a Mark Twain, who is one of Shaksper’s strongest doubters.  We know that Twain was in real life Samuel Clemens.  And once we explore the possibility that another name, such as Oxford’s, was behind Shakespeare, we gain a new and greater understanding of the truly profound genius that the world will always know as Shakespeare.

Thomas Hunter, Ph.D.


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