About the Book
Sweet
Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare?
Robin Williams’ premise that a woman may have written the works attributed to William Shakespeare is not based on analysis of the female characters in the plays or on any perceived feminine attributes. Rather, she grounds her provocative study on documented evidence regarding Mary Sidney, a woman who developed the most important literary circle in English history, whose mission in life was to create great works in the English language, and who was unable to put her name on work written for the public theater. This writer had a love affair with a younger man (as told in the sonnets), was intimately connected to the world about which the plays are written, and was one of the most educated people in the country. Furthermore, she had unlimited access to the source materials for the plays.
This book does not attempt to prove that Mary Sidney Herbert, the Countess of Pembroke, wrote the plays and sonnets attributed to William Shakespeare. Instead, Robin Williams’ intent is to provide enough documented evidence to open the inquiry into this intriguing—and entirely plausible—possibility. She accomplishes this by, on the one hand, debunking longstanding assumptions about the author of these works, and, on the other hand, providing overwhelming documented evidence connecting Mary Sidney to the Shakespearean canon.
Sweet Swan of Avon is published by Wilton Circle Press.