Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare?(Book review)

Was Shakespeare a woman? Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare?

by Robin Williams Wilton Circle Press

Was Shakespeare a woman?

WHEN the famous folio of Shakespeare's thirty-six dramas appeared in London bookstores over the 1623-24 holiday season, anyone curious about the Bard's identity might have been forgiven if they suspected that "his" identity was in fact "her" identity. After all, it was to the sons of the literary Mary Sidney (Herbert), Countess of Pembroke, that the expensive 1000-page folio was dedicated, not to the illiterate daughters of the incumbent Bard from Stratford-upon-Avon. Mary, sister of the illustrious poet Sir Philip Sidney, an accomplished poet in her own right, had devoted herself to publishing her deceased brother's work. Her translations of the Psalms were as good as his--even better, according to some.

Having been for years the center of a famous literary circle at Wilton House on the Avon River in Wiltshire, she was still a power in the literary circles of London at the time of her death, two years before the publication of the First Folio. And her most famous portrait shows swans in her lace collar! These are the primary facts that fuel the new and highly readable Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare? by Robin Williams (no relation to the comedian), the latest contribution to the 150-year old authorship debate. Williams, an independent scholar, has more than forty books (on computer software) to her credit.

The part of the book that will have the greatest impact on most readers is the …