THE ANNOTATOR

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 17, 1954

An antiquarian bookseller (Keen) acquired a much annotated copy of Halle's Chronicle (published 1550), and found enough clues to lead him to hope the copy had been Shakespeare's, the annotations his. His literary detective work revealed enough coincidences and possibilities to claim that here are the clues to the missing years of Shakespeare's youth, that he thinks were spent not in Stratford, but in a Catholic Lancashire household. 125 pages are devoted to the meticulous examination of his procedure; the balance to a transcription of the annotations, so-termed evidence about the handwriting, pieces written on the findings, glossary of Lancashire words, genealogical tables, and an index. An ingenious theory, but it is easy for the scholars to shoot it full of holes. Keen himself refers to ""our slender framework of conjecture and coincidence"" -- and this in final analysis it remains.

Pub Date: Aug. 17, 1954

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1954

Categories: NONFICTION