Paul Menzer is Dean of Visual and Performing Arts at Mary Baldwin University, where he is a professor and the director of the Shakespeare and Performance graduate program. He is the editor of Inside Shakespeare: Essays on the Blackfriars Stage (2006) and author of The Hamlets: Cues, Q's, and Remembered Texts (2008), Anecdotal Shakespeare: a New Performance History (2015), Shakespeare in the Theatre: The American Shakespeare Center (2017), as well as editions of Romeo and Juliet (2017) and Doctor Faustus (2018).

Gives readers a real sense of how Shakespeare worked and how his life is revealed in his plays and poetry

Series PrefacePreface: The Complete Life of William ShakespeareChapter 1. Shakespeare's DeadChapter 2. Earth Unto EarthChapter 3. Shakespeare at SchoolChapter 4. Anne Hathaway, akaChapter 5. The Lost YearsChapter 6. Stratford in the Rear ViewChapter 7. Enter LondonChapter 8. Shakespeare, playwrightChapter 9. Shakespeare, poetChapter 10. Shakespeare's CompanyChapter 11. William Shakespeare, gent.Chapter 12. Shakespeare at CourtChapter 13. Shakespeare's Globe?Chapter 14. Shakespeare's PropertiesChapter 15. The King's ManChapter 16. The Plague YearsChapter 17. Shakespeare's DaughtersChapter 18. The Returning PointChapter 19. Shakespeare's HeadEpilogue: Yellow LeavesNotesIndex

This engaging and fresh biography begins by examining how Shakespeare's life turns into myth so comfortably as to seduce even the most sceptical scholar. The early departure, the late return. Public success, private loss. A twilight of plays about family reunions, a death at home in the biggest house in town, the one he walked by as a schoolboy and eyed with envy, or at least ambition. Shakespeare led an orbital life, everything returned to where it began. He even had the dramatic good sense to die on his birthday.One of the appealing dynamics of the Shakespeare myth is the contrast of his humble beginnings and his lofty achievements, persuading us that genius might blossom anywhere. William Shakespeare: A Brief Life honours these myths, but also explores some of the mysteries: why Shakespeare left Stratford, who he ran with in London, why he put down his pen and at last came home again. Ultimately, the book explores the compelling contrast between the mere fifty two years Shakespeare lived, with the prolonged after lives of his work and his story, which show no sign of ending.