# Is Shakespeare Dead? > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Is_Shakespeare_Dead%3F > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Is_Shakespeare_Dead%3F.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is_Shakespeare_Dead%3F > Source revision: 1333636588 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) 1909 literary work by Mark Twain Is Shakespeare Dead? First edition book cover Author Mark Twain Language English Genre Non-fiction Publisher Harper & Brothers Publication date 1909[1] Publication place United States Media type Print (hardback) Pages 149 OCLC 751341 Preceded by A Horse's Tale Followed by Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven ***Is Shakespeare Dead?*** is a short, semi-autobiographical work by American humorist [Mark Twain](/source/Mark_Twain). It explores the [controversy over the authorship](/source/Shakespearean_authorship_question) of the [Shakespearean](/source/William_Shakespeare) literary canon via satire, anecdote, and extensive quotation of contemporary authors on the subject. ## Summary In the book, Twain expounds the view that [Shakespeare of Stratford](/source/Shakespeare's_life) was not the author of the canon, and lends tentative support to the [Baconian theory](/source/Baconian_theory). The book opens with a scene from his early adulthood, where he was trained to be a steamboat pilot by an elder who often argued with him over the controversy. Twain's arguments include the following points: - That little was known about Shakespeare's life, and the bulk of his biographies were based on conjecture. - That a number of eminent British barristers and judges found Shakespeare's plays permeated with precise legal thought, and that the author could only have been a veteran legal professional. - That in contrast, Shakespeare of Stratford had never held a legal position or office, and had only been in court over petty lawsuits late in life. - That small towns lionize and celebrate their famous authors for generations, but this had not happened in Shakespeare's case. He described his own fame in [Hannibal](/source/Hannibal%2C_Missouri) as a case in point. Twain draws parallels and analogies from the pretensions of modern religious figures and commentators on the nature of Satan. He compares the believers in Shakespeare to adherents of [Arthur Orton](/source/Arthur_Orton) and [Mary Baker Eddy](/source/Mary_Baker_Eddy). ## Reputation The book has been described as "one of his least well received and most misunderstood works".[2] Karen Lystra argues that the essay reveals satirical intentions that went beyond the Shakespeare-Bacon controversy of the time, although she admits that Twain appears to have been sincere in his beliefs concerning Shakespeare.[3] Though it is commonly assumed to be nothing more than a stale and embarrassing rehash of the Shakespeare-Bacon controversy, Twain was up to something more than flimsy literary criticism. He was using the debate over Shakespeare's real identity to satirize prejudice, intolerance, and self-importance—in himself as well as others.... But after his passionate diatribe against the "Stratfordolators" and his vigorous support of the Baconians, he cheerfully admits that both sides are built on inference. Leaving no doubt about his satirical intent, Twain then gleefully subverts his entire argument. After seeming to be a serious, even angry, combatant, he denies that he intended to convince anyone that Shakespeare was not the real author of his works. "It would grieve me to know that any one could think so injuriously of me, so uncomplimentarily, so unadmiringly of me," he writes mockingly. "Would I be so soft as that, after having known the human race familiarly for nearly seventy-four years?" We get our beliefs at second hand, he explains, "we reason none of them out for ourselves. It is the way we are made." Twain has set a trap—an elaborate joke at the expense of what he scornfully refers to as the "Reasoning Race." He is satirizing the need to win an argument when it is virtually impossible to convince anyone to change sides in almost any debate. His excessive rhetoric of attack is obviously absurd—calling the other side "thugs," for example—yet it has been taken at face value.[4] ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** [Facsimile of the original 1st edition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1909._Is_Shakespeare_Dead%3F_From_My_Autobiography.djvu). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Fiedler, Leslie. "Afterword" in *Mark Twain, 1601 and Is Shakespeare Dead?* Oxford UP, 1996, p. 9. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Lystra, Karen. *Dangerous Intimacy: The Untold Story of Mark Twain's Final Years*, University of California Press, 2004, pp. 161, 308n. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Lystra 161. v t e Shakespeare authorship question A series on alternative authorship theories for the works of William Shakespeare Overview History of the Shakespeare authorship question Shakespeare attribution studies Is Shakespeare Dead? Declaration of Reasonable Doubt Theories Baconian Crollalanza Derbyite Florio Lanier Marlovian Nevillean Oxfordian Prince Tudor Shaykh Zubayr Candidates List of Shakespeare authorship candidates Francis Bacon Emilia Lanier Christopher Marlowe Henry Neville William Stanley Edward de Vere Proponents Joseph Adler Mark Anderson Babette Babich Delia Bacon Ros Barber Charles Wisner Barrell Charles Beauclerk Alden Brooks Charles Champlin Jeffery Donaldson Ignatius L. Donnelly Bert Fields George Greenwood Joseph C. Hart Calvin Hoffman Derek Jacobi Richard Kennedy Abel Lefranc J. Thomas Looney Sandra Day O'Connor Charlton Ogburn Charlton Greenwood Ogburn John Orloff Orville Ward Owen John Denham Parsons Prince Philip Michael Rubbo William Rubinstein Mark Rylance Henry Seymour Joseph Sobran John Paul Stevens Roger Stritmatter Mark Twain Bernard Mordaunt Ward Alexander Waugh Walt Whitman James Wilde Robin Williams (writer) v t e Mark Twain Bibliography Novels The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Prince and the Pauper Adventures of Huckleberry Finn A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court The American Claimant Tom Sawyer Abroad Pudd'nhead Wilson Tom Sawyer, Detective Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc A Double Barrelled Detective Story A Horse's Tale The Mysterious Stranger Hellfire Hotchkiss Short stories "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" "Cannibalism in the Cars" "A Literary Nightmare" "A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage" "The Great Revolution in Pitcairn" 1601 "The Stolen White Elephant" "Luck" "The Million Pound Bank Note" "A Double Barrelled Detective Story" "Those Extraordinary Twins" "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" "A Dog's Tale" "Extracts from Adam's Diary" "The War Prayer" "Eve's Diary" "Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven" "My Platonic Sweetheart" "Advice for Good Little Girls" Collections Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance Sketches New and Old Mark Twain's Library of Humor Merry Tales The £1,000,000 Bank Note and Other New Stories The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories Plays Is He Dead? Essays "The Awful German Language" "On the Decay of the Art of Lying" "Advice to Youth" How to Tell a Story and Other Essays "Concerning the Jews" "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" "Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany" "What Is Man?" "The United States of Lyncherdom" "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" Letters from the Earth Nonfiction Territorial Enterprise letters Letters from Hawaii The Innocents Abroad Roughing It Old Times on the Mississippi A Tramp Abroad Life on the Mississippi Following the Equator Is Shakespeare Dead? Autobiography of Mark Twain (Chapters from My Autobiography) King Leopold's Soliloquy The Private History of a Campaign That Failed Christian Science Speeches "Some Thoughts on the Science of Onanism" "Votes for Women" Places and events Family cabin Birthplace State Historic Site State Park Boyhood home and museum Mark Twain Cave Mark Twain in Nevada Territorial Enterprise Sagebrush School Quarry Farm Mark Twain House Stormfield Twain–Ament indemnities controversy Popular culture Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Mark Twain Readers Award Mark Twain Tonight! The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944) The Adventures of Mark Twain (1985) Mark Twain (2001 documentary) Twain and Shaw Do Lunch (2011 play) Mark Twain: The Musical Family Olivia Langdon Clemens (wife) Susy Clemens (daughter) Clara Clemens (daughter) Jean Clemens (daughter) John M. Clemens (father) Jane Lampton Clemens (mother) Orion Clemens (brother) Related Jap Herron Center For Mark Twain Studies Mark Twain (book) Mark Twain National Forest Mark Twain Tree National Tom Sawyer Days Authority control databases: National Spain --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Is Shakespeare Dead?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is_Shakespeare_Dead%3F) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is_Shakespeare_Dead%3F?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.