ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the long history of William Shakespeare's life story through the many biographies written about the poet in the last 300 years or so. In Spain, for instance, interest in the connections between Shakespeare the man and Shakespeare the author resulted in several works of primarily non-fiction, beginning in the early nineteenth century. In the second half of the twentieth century, the question of Shakespeare's religion became a particular point of debate for biographers. One of the best-selling biographies of Shakespeare ever written is Stephen Greenblatt's Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare, for which the author reportedly received a million-dollar advance. A most prolific Shakespeare scholar of the twentieth century through the millennium, Stanley Wells has tackled Shakespeare's life story several times from a number of different angles. A number of works have narrowed their focus to smaller periods of Shakespeare's life, rather than surveying the full span from cradle to grave.
