Oberon Shakespeare Study Group

by Linda Theil I received this email today from deposed Memoria di Shakespeare editors, Luciana  Pirè  and Maria Valentini: Dear Ms Theil, thank you for your concern. We will not be appearing as editors of the tenth issue of Memoria di Shakespeare ; the Editorial Board has decided on a particular line and rather than having been replaced we have chosen to step down from the editorship of this particular issue. We must however add that all papers had been only temporarily accepted rather than definitively and were due to be read by the Board as a whole and then go through peer review. We believe there is not much more we can add. Yours sincerely,  Luciana Pirè and Maria Valentini I asked the two Italian scholars for their response to the new Memoria di Shakespeare editor, Gary Taylor's having accused them both of " . . . a breach of faith . . ." in choosing Shakespeare-authorship researcher Richard Waugaman, MD, for a place in the tenth edition of Memoria -- an...

Stephen Greenblatt speaks during the closing session titled "Where are we now?" at the Folger Institute's "Shakespeare and the Problem of Biography" conference held April 3-5, 2014 in Washington DC. Photo by Teresa Wood.  Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library By Linda Theil Regarding his mention of Holocaust denial in proximity to the study of Shakespeare authorship in a 2005 New York Times letter to the editor, Pulitzer Prize winning author Stephen Greenblatt, PhD , replied yesterday to Dr. Richard Waugaman’s request to make a public apology for his remarks. Greenblatt said: . . . I very much regret my Holocaust example, I had meant it only to call into question in the sharpest terms the apparent difference between the NY Times ' treatment of scientific consensus and its treatment of historical consensus. But I had not reflected — as I should have — that Oxfordians might draw the implication that I was likening THEM to a particularly abhorre...

Shelly Maycock and Roger Stritmatter at the "Shakespeare and the Problem of Biography" conference held April 3-5, 2014 at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. Photo credit: Bill Boyle by Linda Theil The anti-Strat community was well represented among the 156 Shakespeare luminaries who attended the "Shakespeare and the Problem of Biography" conference sponsored by the Folger Institute and the National Endowment for the Humanities on April 3-5, 2014  at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC . Anti-Strat attendees included: William Boyle, MA  Library and Information Science, owner of the New England Shakespeare Oxford Library , Forever Press, and EverReader weblog Peter Dickson, MA author of  Bardgate: Shake-speare and the Royalists Who Stole the Bard , Kissinger and the Meaning of History (Cambridge Press, 1978) Shelly Maycock Roger Stritmatter, PhD James Warren, author of An Index to Oxfordian Publications Richard Waugaman, M...

Georgetown University professor of psychology Richard Waugaman, MD, reviewed Rolland Emmerich's Shakespeare authorship film, Anonymous , for Roger Stritmatter's Shake-Speare's Bible weblog yesterday in an essay titled "Not unanimous on Anonymous". Waugaman's knowledge of the authorship issue, his insight into the forces contributing to the controversy, and his lucid writing style make reading his essay a necessary pleasure. Waugaman said: Psychoanalysts are in a unique position to elucidate the psychology of literary anonymity and pseudonymity. The evidence suggests that keeping one’s authorship secret helps promote what Keat’s called Shakespeare’s “negative capability”—keeping his own identity in the background as he created hundreds of utterly convincing characters. . . . When I am told that Oxfordians are simply unable to admit they’re wrong, I point out that every Oxfordian I know started as a Stratfordian, until they looked into the matter more deepl...