Press release from Monday April 23, 2007
SAC News Releases
- February 15, 2018
- University of London now offers free online Shakespeare authorship course
- December 9, 2016
- SAC News: What we've accomplished; what's next after the 400th anniversary?
- November 22, 2016
- Droeshout engraving in First Folio has Shakspere wearing impossible doublet!
- May 4, 2016
- Doubts about Shakespeare go international for the 400th anniversary
- April 25, 2016
- Sir Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance revive the debate over Shakespeare's identity in an interview with NPR's Renée Montagne.
- April 24, 2016
- Doubters claim victory on Shakespeare 400th Anniversary, and renew their challenge to Stratfordians to participate in a mock trial.
- March 23, 2016
- The SAC at Age 10; Six New Notables; 400th Anniversary International Events
- December 27, 2015
- Declaration of Reasonable Doubt still un-rebutted after more than eight years
- November 22, 2015
- Droeshout engraving in First Folio has Shakspere wearing impossible doublet!
- May 31, 2015
- RSC removes Stanley Wells' article on “Authorship Debate” from its website!
- September 28, 2014
- SAC Update through September, 2014
- December 6, 2013
- SAC challenges the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust to a mock trial, to prove that Shakspere wrote Shakespeare, offering a £40K donation to the winning side.'
- November 21, 2011
- Actor Michael York and Shakespeare Authorship Coalition challenge the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon with new reasons to doubt the identity of the author William Shakespeare in the wake of Sony Pictures’ heretical film, Anonymous.
- April 30, 2011
- Over 2,000 sign Declaration of Reasonable Doubt
- September 18, 2010
- Theater professionals sign Shakespeare Authorship Declaration
- April 20, 2010
- Happy Birthday and Retirement, Justice John Paul Stevens!
- April 19, 2010
- Shakespeare Authorship Coalition updates Declaration signatory lists
- November 15, 2009
- U.S. Supreme Court Justices John Paul Stevens and Sandra Day O'Connor (retired) sign the Declaration of Reasonable Doubt.
- April 13, 2009
- Award-winning Shakespearean actors Sir Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance joined by growing list of declared Shakespeare authorship doubters. Michael York joins fellow actors as SAC Patron. Shakespeare Authorship Coalition marks 2nd aniversary of Declaration of Reasonable Doubt. Seven signatories added to SAC “notables” list.
- November 17, 2008
- Huntington Library staff sign Declaration.
- June 3, 2008
- Sir Derek Jacobi joins the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition as a SAC patron.
- December 1, 2007
- First annual report of the Shakespeare authorship coalition: the Coalition’s strategy is working! Over 1,200 people have signed the Declaration of Reasonable Doubt, and we’ve attracted enormous attention to the authorship issue. With each new signatory, it becomes more difficult for orthodox scholars to continue claiming that there is “no room for doubt” about the identity of William Shakespeare.
- September 23, 2007
- Nearly 800 additional signatories have signed the “Declaration of Reasonable Doubt About the Identity of William Shakespeare” in the two weeks since prominent Shakespearean actors Sir Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance, former artistic director at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, gave the Declaration its launch in the U.K.
- July 2, 2007
- SAC adds 100 signers to the list of signatories of the “Declaration of Reasonable Doubt”.
- April 23, 2007
- SAC releases its first list of signatories of the “Declaration of Reasonable Doubt”, on the 391st anniversary of William Shakspere's death.
- April 14, 2007
- SAC and the Shakespeare Authorship Roundtable hold a signing ceremony to issue the “Declaration of Reasonable Doubt”
- April 11, 2007
- SAC and Shakespeare Authorship Roundtable to issue historic “Declaration of Reasonable Doubt”
SAC contact person: John Shahan at (909) 896-2006, or online.
Claremont, California, April 23, 2007 — Today, on the 391st anniversary of the death of Stratford's Mr. William "Shakspere," generally regarded as the author of the works of William "Shakespeare," a new organization — the Shakespeare Authorship Coalition (SAC) — posted on its website the names of 132 signers of its "Declaration of Reasonable Doubt About the Identity of William Shakespeare." The signatures were gathered just in the last two weeks on its website at www.DoubtAboutWill.org. The SAC says it plans to continue operating the website, gathering and posting names of signatories, through April 23, 2016, the 400th anniversary of the death of Mr. William "Shakspere" of Stratford.
The list includes, most notably, prominent Shakespearean actors Sir Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance, former artistic director at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, plus Dean Keith Simonton, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California at Davis, a Shakespeare lover who is widely regarded by his peers as perhaps the world's leading expert on creativity and genius. Simonton reveres Shakespeare, but can't accept the traditional attribution to the man from Stratford. Also named on the list is Charles Champlin, former Arts Critic Emeritus at the Los Angeles Times.
The 132 declaration signers include 34 current or former college and university faculty members, 34 people with various types of doctoral degrees, and another 31 people with various master's degrees. "This is a man bites dog story," said SAC chairman John Shahan, principal author of the declaration. "Orthodox Shakespeare scholars would have the public believe that only deranged people in isolated fringe groups question the identity of William Shakespeare. Nothing could be further from the truth."
The declaration itself names twenty prominent doubters of the past, including Mark Twain, Henry and William James, Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sigmund Freud, Orson Welles, Tyrone Guthrie, Charlie Chaplin, John Galsworthy, Sir John Gielgud, U.S. Supreme Court Justices Harry A. Blackmun and Lewis F. Powell, Jr., Mortimer J. Adler, editor of the Great Books at the University of Chicago, and Paul Nitze, co-founder of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. "If orthodox scholars were correct, it would be impossible to come up with such a list," Shahan said.
"One wonders, when orthodox scholars characterize all authorship doubters as 'conspiracy theorists,' or 'snobs' who cannot accept the idea of a commoner having the ability to produce great literature, exactly which of these outstanding individuals are they referring to? Was Walt Whitman, the poet of Democracy and the common man, just a snob? Charlie Chaplin? Twain? Reporters should ask them. When they say authorship doubters are all irrational, does that include the Supreme Court Justices? Now, they might also ask, if the "ignorant fools" could write such a declaration, why haven't you?"
According to its website Home page, the SAC "has nothing against the man from Stratford-on-Avon, but we doubt that he was the author of the works. Our goal is to legitimize the issue in academia so students, teachers and professors can feel free to pursue it. This is necessary because the issue is widely viewed as settled in academia and is treated as a taboo subject. We believe that an open-minded examination of the evidence shows that the issue should be taken seriously. Your signature on the declaration will help us make the case that there is reasonable doubt about the author."
SAC contact person: John Shahan at (909) 896-2006, or online.