Yorktown Heights, NY

Monday, November 30, 2009

For Immediate Release

Media Contact:

Matthew Cossolotto

Ovations International, Inc.

914-245-9721

matthew@ovations.com

Shakespeare Oxford Society Announces Publication of The Oxfordian – Edited by Professor Michael Egan, Shakespeare Scholar Who Is Open-Minded on the Shakespeare Authorship Question

As editor of the Society's flagship annual journal, Dr. Egan believes the Shakespeare authorship issue is a "legitimate and important area for investigation" and that "there are enough doubts to continue serious academic research"

Professor Egan (PhD Cambridge) is winner of the Adele Mellen Prize for Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship for his four-volume study, The Tragedy of King Richard the Second, Part One: A Newly Authenticated Play by William Shakespeare, Edited, Introduced and With Variorum Notes (2006). A one-volume college edition is in active preparation

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, NY – November 30, 2009 -- The Shakespeare Oxford Society announced the publication of this year's The Oxfordian (Volume 11), the first volume edited by recently appointed editor Michael Egan (PhD), an award-winning Shakespeare scholar who is open-minded on the Shakespeare authorship question.

Commenting on his appointment, Professor Egan stated: "I believe the Shakespeare authorship mystery is a legitimate and important area for investigation and that there are enough doubts or unexplored areas to continue serious academic research."

New York-based Shakespeare Oxford Society is an educational organization dedicated to exploring the Shakespeare authorship question and researching the evidence that Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford (1550 – 1604) is the true author of the poems and plays of "William Shakespeare." The Society has called for the creation of an impartial blue-ribbon commission of multi-disciplinary experts to explore the authorship question in detail.

John Hamill, recently elected president of the Shakespeare Oxford Society, said: "We're delighted that a Shakespeare scholar of Professor Egan's stature agreed to join us as the editor of our flagship annual publication. We invite other Shakespeare scholars and Bard lovers worldwide to take a look at this year's edition of The Oxfordian and to approach the authorship issue with an open mind. It's a fascinating topic that deserves the serious attention of scholars and the media."

The BBC recently published a story (November 27, 2009) about the case for Edward de Vere as the real Shakespeare. (See BBC News: The Earl of Oxford's Big Secret.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/oxford/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8380000/8380564.stm.)

In this BBC article, Dr. Egan is quoted as follows:

"One of the most disturbing aspects of the whole debate is the way the anti-Stratfordians are silenced. There isn't any real attempt to confront the arguments. There's just a general mocking and ridiculing strategy -- what I call arguing by adjective… 'ridiculous, absurd' and so on… whereas in fact there's some very suggestive and interesting pieces of information that need to be factored in there. It's a little like the Copernican theory of the universe. What seems obvious at first turns out to be not so when you try to reconcile the obvious with the anomalies and the anomalies are great."

The 2009 edition of The Oxfordian features an Open Forum section with articles supporting five different authorship candidates: David Kathman on William of Stratford-upon-Avon; Peter Farey on Christopher Marlowe; John Hudson on Amelia Bassano Lanier; John Raithel on William Stanley, and Ramon Jimenez on Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford.

Volume 11 of The Oxfordian includes these other articles:

· Stephanie Hopkins Hughes: An Oxfordian Response;

· Robin Fox: Shakespeare, Oxford and the Grammar School Question;

· Earl Showerman: Timon of Athens: Shakespeare's Sophoclean;

· Frank Davis: Greene's Groatsworth of Witte: Shakespeare's Biography?

· Michael Egan: Slurs, Nasal Rhymes and Amputations: A Reply to MacDonald P. Jackson;

· John Shahan and Richard Whalen: Auditing the Stylometricians: Elliott, Valenza and the Claremont Shakespeare Authorship Clinic.

Professor Egan added: "If the traditional 'Shakespeare' did not write the plays ascribed to him, who did? On this matter I am not settled. I have a lot of sympathy for the Oxfordian response, but frankly my mind remains open. I believe all scholars worthy of the name should allow the research to take us wherever it leads, and that's exactly how I intend to operate as editor of The Oxfordian."

More About Professor Michael Egan, PhD

Michael Egan is an internationally known writer, consultant and educator, with experience working in England, South Africa, the US mainland and Hawaii. Formerly Scholar in Residence, Brigham Young University-Hawaii, Egan earned his BA from Witwatersrand University, and his M.A. and PhD degrees from Cambridge. He has served as Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Lecturer in English, Lancaster University, UK. and as Visiting Professor at the University of Hawaii, Hawaii Pacific University, and South London University. He is a prize-winning author of ten books and over 80 professional articles.

About The Shakespeare Oxford Society

Founded in 1957, New York-based Shakespeare Oxford Society is a nonprofit, educational organization dedicated to exploring the Shakespeare authorship question and researching the evidence that Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford (1550 – 1604) is the true author of the poems and plays of "William Shakespeare." Visit www.shakespeare-oxford.com for more information. Other useful sites include: www.shakespearefellowship.org, www.doubtaboutwill.org, www.shakespearebyanothername.com, www.deveresociety.co.uk, and www.oxford-shakespeare.com.

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Matthew Cossolotto

President

Shakespeare Oxford Society

Yorktown Heights, NY

914-962-1717

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