The true story of a self-taught sleuth's quest to prove his eye-opening theory about the source
of the world's most famous plays taking readers inside the vibrant era of Elizabethan England
as well as the contemporary scene of Shakespeare scholars and obsessives. What if Shakespeare
wrote Shakespeare . . . but someone else wrote him first? Acclaimed author of The Map Thief
Michael Blanding presents the twinning narratives of renegade scholar Dennis McCarthy and
Elizabethan courtier Sir Thomas North. Unlike those who believe someone else secretly wrote
Shakespeare McCarthy argues that Shakespeare wrote the plays but he adapted them from source
plays written by North decades before. In Shakespeare's Shadow alternates between the enigmatic
life of North the intrigues of the Tudor court the rivalries of English Renaissance theater
and academic outsider McCarthy's attempts to air his provocative ideas in the clubby world of
Shakespearean scholarship. Through it all Blanding employs his keen journalistic eye to craft
a captivating drama upending our understanding of the beloved playwright and his singular
genius. Winner of the 2021 International Book Award in Narrative Non-Fiction
