Will in the World

How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

Anniversary Edition

1 April 2016

Territory Rights — Worldwide including Canada, Singapore and Malaysia, but excluding the British Commonwealth.

Description

Named One of Esquire's 50 Best Biographies of All Time

The Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, reissued with a new afterword for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

A young man from a small provincial town moves to London in the late 1580s and, in a remarkably short time, becomes the greatest playwright not of his age alone but of all time. How is an achievement of this magnitude to be explained? Stephen Greenblatt brings us down to earth to see, hear, and feel how an acutely sensitive and talented boy, surrounded by the rich tapestry of Elizabethan life, could have become the world’s greatest playwright.

Reviews

"A magnificent achievement." — Denis Donoghue, Wall Street Journal

"Vividly written, richly detailed, and insightful from first chapter to last…certain to secure a place among the essential studies of the greatest of all writers." — William E. Cain, Boston Sunday Globe

"Greenblatt’s masterful biography is like traveling back in time to see firsthand how a small-town Englishman became the greatest writer of all time." — Adam Morgan, Esquire

"Dazzling and subtle." — Richard Lacayo, Time

"So engrossing, clearheaded, and lucid that its arrival is not just welcome but cause for celebration." — Dan Cryer, Newsday