Oxford as Shakespeare celebrated coast to coast: birthday bashes in Boston and Chicago.

Oxfordians in Boston and Chicago celebrated Shakespeare in the month of his birth by honoring Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, born April 12, 1550.

Events in two of America's major cities provided a benchmark of the existing and continuing growth in interest in the authorship debate. The 14th Annual Oxford Day Banquet in Boston featured a talk by Dr. Roger Stritmatter (who was formally awarded his Ph.D. on May 26th by UMass-Amherst), while in Chicago the first anniversary of a new organization--the Chicago Oxford Society--included four days of special events featuring Board members of the Shakespeare Oxford Society to celebrate its first year on Oxford's 451st birthday.

With the ever-growing Edward de Vere Studies Conference in Portland, Oregon also taking place each spring, Oxfordians are now staking out their claim on both Shakespeare and the fortuitous circumstance that the true Shakespeare's …