More biography neighbors!
SHAKESPEARE to the left of me, SHELDON to the right, here I am – stuck in the middle with….
TUPAC SHAKUR
Like Shakespeare and Sheldon, Shakur was a prolific writer including a book of poetry. In reading about him, I found the good, the bad, and the ugly. Also, I found that Sidney Sheldon wrote for I Dream of Jeannie and The Patty Duke Show and started writing novels after the age of 50 – wow. There’s two ends of the life success spectrum – Tupac with early success, early death and lots of posthumous success; and Sheldon with early success in being a playwright and screenwriter followed by later life novelist success. Then, of course the entire success spectrum inhabited by Mr. Shakespeare.
This first paragraph of Nicholas Rowe’s The Life of Mr. William Shakespeare is a delightful description of why a biography:
[1]
IT seems to be a kind of Respect due to the Memory of Excellent Men, especially of those whom their Wit and Learning have made Famous, to deliver some Account of themselves, as well as their Works, to Posterity. For this Reason, how fond do we see some People of discovering any little Personal Story of the great Men of Antiquity, their Families, the common Accidents of their Lives, and even their Shape, Make and Features have been the Subject of critical Enquiries. How trifling soever this Curiosity may seem to be, it is certainly very Natural; and we are hardly satisfy’d with an Account of any remarkable Person, ’till we have heard him describ’d even to the very Cloaths he wears. As for what relates to Men of Letters, the knowledge of an Author may sometimes conduce to the better understanding his Book: And tho’ the Works of Mr. Shakespear may seem to many not to want a Comment, yet I fancy some little Account of the Man himself may not be thought improper to go along with them.
We saw a great satire of Shakespeare called The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) at The Kent Stage. Check out the Othello Rap:
