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“Shakespeare” by Another Name: The Life of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, the Man Who Was Shakespeare is a 2005 book by Mark Anderson. It is a detailed biography of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, connecting his life to the plays and sonnets conventionally attributed to William Shakespeare, and promoting the Oxfordian theory that de Vere in fact was the author of these works. Anderson spent more than a decade researching the 600-page book, and it is considered the first literary biography of de Vere.

Notable inclusions
The book covers extensively, among many other details:
 * A meticulous biography of de Vere's life
 * Thorough accounts of de Vere's close and continuing involvement with Queen Elizabeth, her court, and her chief minister Burghley
 * Details of de Vere's ongoing involvement with the theater
 * Meticulous accounts of de Vere's education and reading materials
 * Detailed historical records of plays, masques, and other literature that were likely either early versions of the plays or sources for them
 * The close Southampton connection to de Vere and the sonnets
 * Apparent contemporary allusions to the alleged pseudonym used by de Vere
 * The Ashbourne portrait (a controversial painting said to be either Shakespeare, de Vere, or Hugh Hamersley)
 * De Vere's Geneva Bible marginalia
 * Oxfordian background of the First Folio and its publication

Notable exclusions
The book does not cover:


 * The Prince Tudor theory
 * The Dark Lady in the Shakespeare sonnets
 * The theory held by some that de Vere did not die in 1604, but moved to the isle of Mersea till his possible death in 1609

Acclaim
Anderson's official website for the book quotes the ending summation of a post on the blog of New York Times bestselling author Michael Prescott:


 * Brick by brick, over the course of 380 pages, not to mention 30 pages of appendices and 145 pages of endnotes, Anderson builds an overwhelming circumstantial case for the Oxfordian position. As he admits, there is no smoking gun, no single piece of evidence that provides absolute proof — but the sum total of the evidence he submits ought to be dispositive to any open-minded reader.


 * I don't expect the walls of academe to come tumbling down just because Mark Anderson has blown his trumpet. The Stratfordians, stubborn defenders of orthodoxy, will resist the inescapable conclusions prompted by this book, just as they have resisted, dismissed, and laughed off the arguments of Looney, Ogburn, and others. But I now think that theirs is a rearguard action and a losing cause. The case has been made, and eventually it will carry the day.


 * Edward de Vere was Shakespeare. And sooner or later, everyone will know it.
 * — Michael Prescott