Shakespeare Matters

hakespeare Matters, the Shakespeare Fellowship's 32-page quarterly newsletter, publishes the latest in ground-breaking scholarship and news in Shakespeare Authorship studies. Now edited by Roger Stritmatter, PhD, the publication includes on its editorial staff four PhD's in literary studies -- Dr. Daniel Wright of Concordia University (English), Dr. Felicia Londré of the University of Missouri at Kansas City (Theatre History), Dr. Anne Pluto (English) of Leslie College and Dr. Roger Stritmatter, Instructor of English at Coppin State College in Baltimore, MD.

Although most of our contributors are Oxfordians, the editors welcome submissions by independent scholars and researchers, regardless of their conclusions about authorship. The only requirement for publication is that the essay should yield significant insight into the nature of the Shakespearean ouevre or era.

Shakespeare Matters is proud of the active tradition of open intellectual exchange which takes place in our pages; each issue typically contains as many as 3-6 letters to the editor from our informed and active readership. Several letters in our second issue illustrate this feature of the publication, including one from the former head of Reader Services for the prestigious Huntington Library, who writes to dispute some aspects of Ms. Burris' first article.

We also get lots of fan mail: "When Shakespeare Matters arrives in my mail box," wrote one member recently, "everything stops in my house while I read it cover-to-cover. Forty years ago my husband's cousin (who lives in Stratford, England) told me Shaxper didn't write the plays, and I've been studying the subject ever since....Thank you for all your hard work."

Please query us if you have a submission or article concept. If you're wondering about subscribing, here are some samples:

Our Fall 2002 issue features the first of a two part series of articles by Barbara Burris on the Folger's "Shakespeare" Ashbourne Portrait, identified by Charles Wisner Barrell in a 1940 Scientific American with the long-lost Cornelius Ketel portrait of Edward de Vere. Burris pursues the thread of her research on the Ashbourne with further revelations.

The article demonstrates that the costume of the Ashbourne sitter invalidates the Shakespeare Quarterly (44:1, 55-72) claim of William L. Pressly identifying the sitter as London Mayor Hugh Hammersley (who was mayor, circa 1627). The sitter's clothing, claims Burris, definitively dates the portrait to 1576-83, the period during which Ketel painted Oxford.

In another article from our second issue Mark K. Anderson and Roger Stritmatter detail a stunning new logical proof, based on a long-neglected 1593 pamphlet by the Cambridge pedant Gabriel Harvey, identifying Edward de Vere as the author of Venus and Adonis, by "William Shakespeare" (1593). It seems that Harvey had the inside gossip. Maybe he was reading Shakespeare Matters.

As of Fall 2009, the Fellowship has launched a new initiative in cyberspace: our online peer reviewed journal of authorship studies, Brief Chroncicles. Please access Brief Chronicles online.

Complete copies of Shakespeare Matters are available here in PDF format. The most recent four issues are available only to our subscribers. All other issues are publicly available.

Online and full membership subscribers should request an ID and password by sending an email to newsletter@shakespearefellowship.org.

Issues (in PDF format) available without subscription:

Vol. 1, No. 1: Fall 2001 Vol. 1, No. 2: Winter 2002 Vol. 1, No. 3: Spring 2002 Vol. 1, No. 4: Summer 2002

Vol. 2, No. 1: Fall 2002 Vol. 2, No. 2: Winter 2003 Vol. 2, No. 3: Spring 2003 Vol. 2, No. 4: Summer 2003

Vol. 3, No. 1: Fall 2003 Vol. 3, No. 2: Winter 2004 Vol. 3, No. 3: Spring 2004 Vol. 3, No. 4: Summer 2004

Vol. 4, No. 1: Fall 2004 Vol. 4, No. 2: Winter 2005 Vol. 4, No. 3: Spring 2005 Vol. 4, No. 4: Summer 2005

Vol. 5, No. 1: Fall 2005 Vol. 5, No. 2: Winter 2006 Vol. 5, No. 3: Spring 2006 Vol. 5, No. 4: Summer 2006

Vol. 6, No. 1: Fall 2006 Vol. 6, No. 2: Winter 2007 Vol. 6, No. 3: Spring 2007 Vol. 6, No. 4: Summer 2007

Vol. 7, No. 1: Fall 2007 Vol. 7, No. 2: Winter 2008 Vol. 7, No. 3: Spring 2008 Vol. 7, No. 4: Fall 2008

Vol. 8, No. 1: Winter 2009 Vol. 8, No. 2: Spring 2009 Vol. 8, No. 3: Summer 2009 Vol. 8, No. 4: Fall 2009

Vol. 9, No. 1: Winter 2010 Vol. 9, No. 2: Spring/Summer 2010 Vol. 9, No. 3: Fall 2010

Issues (in PDF format) available only to subscribers:

Vol. 10, No. 1: Winter 2011 Vol. 10, No. 2: Spring 2011 Vol. 10, No. 3: Summer 2011 Vol. 10, No. 4: Fall 2011

To subscribe to Shakespeare Matters, please visit our membership page.

Members of the newsletter Editorial Board should click here to access the Editorial Board page.