Publisher's Synopsis
Everyone knows William Shakespeare was white --- or was he? "Ebony Swan: The Case for Shakespeare's Race" is the startling new book that dares to ask, "Was Shakespeare black?" This explosive nonfiction work by Dr. Jeffrey Hunter McQuain explores whether the world's greatest writer was not white but biracial. Behind that mystery, though, lies a 400-year-old conspiracy of silence, perhaps the biggest cover-up in literary history. In exposing that conspiracy, "Ebony Swan" carefully examines all the racial evidence from the Bard's life and times. The intriguing clues range from Shakespeare's being called "an upstart crow" to messages that have remained long hidden in his famous sonnets and on his gravestone. The book provides readers with all of the known facts about Shakespeare's life, from his 1564 baptism in Stratford-upon-Avon until his burial at the same church exactly 52 years later. It also studies the many plays and poems penned by the writer known as the Swan of Avon. From the earliest of his tragedies, "Titus Andronicus," to such great works as "Othello" and "The Tempest," Shakespeare's work demonstrates an unusual sensitivity to issues of race and multiculturalism not found in other writers of his time. Even his great rival, Ben Jonson, produced theatrical works that were clearly racist in comparison to dramas by the Bard. But how was the Renaissance writer supposed to tell future generations the truth about himself? Despite the 400-year-old conspiracy meant to silence him, the Bard found ways to counter the cover-up and reveal the secret that made him the world's greatest writer. The title of this book, in fact, comes from an anagram that Shakespeare was able to hide in Sonnet 55. Backed up by years of exhaustive research, "Ebony Swan" offers and explains more than two dozen exhibits of the relevant racial evidence. In addition, this illuminating study ends with a complete guide to the hundreds of "black" quotations found in the Bard's poems and plays. Not only does "Ebony Swan" make the compelling argument that the Bard was in fact biracial, but this revolutionary new book also offers readers a different and exciting new way to view Shakespeare.
