THE SHAKESPEARE MYTH

Reprint. 'The Seven Hundredth Thousand'. With, loosely laid in, a manuscript letter from the author. Original stapled paper wraps, the front cover illustrated with the portrait frontispiece of Shakespeare's First Folio. A good copy, the covers, prelims and final pages spotted and toned, staples rusted, the binding secure but the covers, torn to the lower part of the spine fold, no longer securely attached.

Loosely laid in to this copy is a letter handwritten by Durning-Lawrence, dated 19 May 1913, and written on the author's addressed paper. The letter, addressed to a Mr Steinberg notes the enclosure of the pamphlet and that a mutual friend had asked him to send it. He emphasises that "700,000 have now been printed" and hopes the recipient will find it "interesting and revealing". Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence, 1st Baronet (1837-1914), a British lawyer and Member of Parliament, is best known for his advocacy of the theory (now discredited by most serious scholars) that Francis Bacon composed the plays attributed to William Shakespeare. He wrote many books and papers on the subject, notably 'Bacon is Shake-Speare' (1910), 'The Shakespeare Myth' (1912), and 'Macbeth Proves Bacon is Shakespeare' (1913).