Doug Stewart, the author of The Boy Who Would be Shakespeare: A Tale of Forgery and Folly, will be joining us for a reading and discussion of a fascinating literary hoax

In the winter of 1795, a frustrated young writer named William Henry Ireland stood petrified in his father's study as two of England's most esteemed scholars interrogated him about a tattered piece of paper that he claimed to have found in an old trunk. It was a note from William Shakespeare. Or was it?

In the months that followed, Ireland produced a torrent of Shakespearean fabrications: letters, poetry, drawings--even an original full-length play that would be hailed as the Bard's lost masterpiece and staged at the Drury Lane Theatre. The documents were forensically implausible, but the people who inspected them ached to see first hand what had flowed from Shakespeare's quill. And so they did.

This dramatic and improbable story of Shakespeare's teenaged double takes us to eighteenth century London and brings us face-to-face with history's most audacious forger.

Read an excerpt and watch a book trailer at Doug's website.

“A fascinating tale of forgery, greed, and deception. It’s the Catch Me If You Can of eighteenth-century London—gripping, fast-moving, and funny.”

—Joseph Finder, New York Times best-selling author
of Vanished and Paranoia

Doug Stewart writes frequently about history and the arts for Smithsonian Magazine. His stories have also appeared in Time, Geo, Muse, Discover, and Connoisseur. Stewart has worked as a book and magazine editor, a ghost writer, a science writer, and a restaurant columnist. He lives in Ipswich, Massachusetts, with his wife and fellow writer, Coco McCabe, and their two sons. This is his first book.

The Boy Who Would Be Shakespeare: A Tale of Forgery and Folly (Hardcover)

By Doug Stewart

$24.95

ISBN-13: 9780306818318
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Da Capo Press, 3/2010

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