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SOF Symposium2021 Highlight: James Warren

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James A. Warren

James Warren, retired diplomat and 2020 Oxfordian of the Year, presented "The Oxfordian Movement and Academia" at the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship's virtual spring symposium "The Shakespeare Attribution" on April 10, 2021. Warren's discussion is available on the SOF YouTube channel under the title, "SOF Spring International Online Symposium 2021". Warren's presentation is introduced at minute 33:48.

In his talk Warren gave an overview of his perspective on the status of the Shakespeare authorship question informed by his six-year study of the history of the Oxfordian movement following the publication of J.T. Looney's Shakespeare Identified in 1920.

Warren identifies institutional resistance as the last bastion of Stratfordian defense and suggests recruiting natural allies -- historians, for example -- as one way to breach the walls of academe.

“There needs to be a civil war take place in Shakespeare studies,” Warren said.

James Warren: "The Oxfordian Movement and Academia"

Warren addresses this topic in his latest book, Shakespeare Revolutionized: The First Hundred Years of J. Thomas Looney's Shakespeare Identified. His new book is now in proof, and scheduled for publication next month by Amazon under Warren's imprint, Veritas Publications.

"Upcoming projects after this book is published are a collection of 450 letters that the first generation of Oxfordians sent to each other; reissue of Dorothy Ogburn's final book, Elizabeth and Shakespeare: England's Power and Glory; and a modern English edition of Hamlet's book, Cardanus Comforte, originally published by order of the Earl of Oxenforde (1573/1576), " Warren said.


He added that a fifth edition of his groundbreaking An Index to Oxfordian Publications with several thousand new items listed, is also in the works.

From the back cover of Shakespeare Revolutionized (Veritas Publications, 2021) by James A. Warren:


That “William Shakespeare” was the author of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and many other much-loved plays is the greatest deception in literary history. The identity of the real author—Edward de Vere, the highest ranking earl in Queen Elizabeth I’s court—was revealed one hundred years ago in a book titled, appropriately, “Shakespeare” Identified in Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.


Shakespeare Revolutionized tells the fascinating story of how de Vere’s authorship was uncovered and explains why it matters: knowing Shakespeare’s real identity revolutionizes understandings of the plays, the conditions in which they were written and the Elizabethan era.


It also explains why the deception was perpetrated and why it lasted for more than 300 years. It shows why many Shakespeare scholars today resist examining the evidence supporting the Oxfordian claim even though it has become the unstated black hole around which much of their work revolves.


Those who have passed through the dozen Mental Revolutions needed to accept the Oxfordian claim know:

  • That many of Shakespeare’s plays were written as entertainment for Queen Elizabeth and her court; only later were they performed on the public stage;
  • That far from being impersonal fantasies, the plays are among the most personal literary creations ever written;
  • That they are intensely topical, filled with allusions to events and people from the 1570s and ’80s, fifteen years earlier than the usual dates and too early to have been written by the man from Stratford born in 1564;
  • That they are political throughout, addressing political issues of great importance to England during the years when they were written;
  • That the plays’ real author, far from being a small time businessman from the sticks, was the Lord Great Chamberlain of the realm who owned two acting companies, sponsored more literary works than anyone other than the queen and was at the center of the literary, intellectual and cultural life of the English Renaissance.

Resources

Event synopsis: SOF Spring International Online Symposium 2021,  https://shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/2021-spring-symposium/

Event video: SOF YouTube channel "SOF Spring International Online Symposium 2021", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvf2W8AaG3g 

James Warren video presentation: "The Oxfordian Movement and Academia", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qoyz4V5UNU0

Background article on James Warren's work on Shakespeare Revolutionized from Oberon weblog 02/28/2020   http://oberonshakespearestudygroup.blogspot.com/2020/02/warren-to-publish-centennial-book-in.html

"James A. Warren honored as Oxfordian of the Year" Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship news weblog, https://shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/warren-oxfordian-of-the-year-2020/

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