Includes bibliographical references and index.

A founding mother : Delia Bacon -- Shakespeare on the Mississippi : Whitman, O'Connor, and Twain -- The great cryptogrammatist : Ignatius Donnelly -- The birthplace : Joseph Skipsey and Henry James -- An agnostic and two rebels : Greenwood, Samuel Butler, and Frank Harris -- Many candidates : Marlowe, Rutland, Derby, and so on -- "Shakespeare" identified : J. Thomas Looney -- Professionals, amateurs, and the question of authority -- The growing Oxfordian challenge -- The Stratfordian response -- The rest is scholarship.

"The history of the Shakespeare controversy is presented in this revised edition of the 1992 work, with new information and additional chapters. Part I documents and assesses the important theories on the authorship question. Part II is an annotated bibliography, arranged chronologically, of the works that deal with the controversy from its vague beginnings to the present"--Provided by publisher.