name	William Shakespeare
birth date	Baptised 26 April 1564 (birth date unknown)
birth place	Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
death date	23 April 1616 (aged 52)
death place	Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
spouse
children	Susanna HallHamnet ShakespeareJudith Quiney
relations	John Shakespeare (father)Mary Shakespeare (mother)
occupation	Playwright, poet, actor
signature	William Shakepeare Signature.svg
movement	English Renaissance theatre}}

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including ''Hamlet'', ''King Lear'', ''Othello'', and ''Macbeth'', considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.

Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. In 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the ''First Folio'', a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's.

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the 19th century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the 20th century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.

Life

Early life

William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning farmer. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual birthdate remains unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April, St George's Day. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholar's mistake, has proved appealing to biographers, since Shakespeare died 23 April 1616. He was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son.

Although no attendance records for the period survive, most biographers agree that Shakespeare was probably educated at the King's New School in Stratford, a free school chartered in 1553, about a quarter-mile from his home. Grammar schools varied in quality during the Elizabethan era, but the curriculum was dictated by law throughout England, and the school would have provided an intensive education in Latin grammar and the classics.

At the age of 18, Shakespeare married the 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. The consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence 27 November 1582. The next day two of Hathaway's neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage. The ceremony may have been arranged in some haste, since the Worcester chancellor allowed the marriage banns to be read once instead of the usual three times, and six months after the marriage Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susanna, baptised 26 May 1583. Twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596.

After the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592, and scholars refer to the years between 1585 and 1592 as Shakespeare's "lost years". Biographers attempting to account for this period have reported many apocryphal stories. Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare’s first biographer, recounted a Stratford legend that Shakespeare fled the town for London to escape prosecution for deer poaching in the estate of local squire Thomas Lucy. Shakespeare is also supposed to have taken his revenge on Lucy by writing a scurrilous ballad about him. Another 18th-century story has Shakespeare starting his theatrical career minding the horses of theatre patrons in London. John Aubrey reported that Shakespeare had been a country schoolmaster. Some 20th-century scholars have suggested that Shakespeare may have been employed as a schoolmaster by Alexander Hoghton of Lancashire, a Catholic landowner who named a certain "William Shakeshafte" in his will. No evidence substantiates such stories other than hearsay collected after his death, and Shakeshafte was a common name in the Lancashire area.

London and theatrical career

It is not known exactly when Shakespeare began writing, but contemporary allusions and records of performances show that several of his plays were on the London stage by 1592. He was well enough known in London by then to be attacked in print by the playwright Robert Greene in his ''Groats-Worth of Wit'':

...there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his ''Tiger's heart wrapped in a Player's hide'', supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you: and being an absolute ''Johannes factotum'', is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country.

Scholars differ on the exact meaning of these words, but most agree that Greene is accusing Shakespeare of reaching above his rank in trying to match university-educated writers such as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe and Greene himself (the "university wits"). The italicised phrase parodying the line "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide" from Shakespeare's ''Henry VI, Part 3'', along with the pun "Shake-scene", identifies Shakespeare as Greene's target. Here ''Johannes Factotum''—"Jack of all trades"— means a second-rate tinkerer with the work of others, rather than the more common "universal genius".

Greene's attack is the earliest surviving mention of Shakespeare’s career in the theatre. Biographers suggest that his career may have begun any time from the mid-1580s to just before Greene's remarks. From 1594, Shakespeare's plays were performed only by the Lord Chamberlain's Men, a company owned by a group of players, including Shakespeare, that soon became the leading playing company in London. After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, the company was awarded a royal patent by the new king, James I, and changed its name to the King's Men.

In 1599, a partnership of company members built their own theatre on the south bank of the River Thames, which they called the Globe. In 1608, the partnership also took over the Blackfriars indoor theatre. Records of Shakespeare's property purchases and investments indicate that the company made him a wealthy man. In 1597, he bought the second-largest house in Stratford, New Place, and in 1605, he invested in a share of the parish tithes in Stratford.

Some of Shakespeare's plays were published in quarto editions from 1594. By 1598, his name had become a selling point and began to appear on the title pages. Shakespeare continued to act in his own and other plays after his success as a playwright. The 1616 edition of Ben Jonson's ''Works'' names him on the cast lists for ''Every Man in His Humour'' (1598) and ''Sejanus His Fall'' (1603). The absence of his name from the 1605 cast list for Jonson’s ''Volpone'' is taken by some scholars as a sign that his acting career was nearing its end. The First Folio of 1623, however, lists Shakespeare as one of "the Principal Actors in all these Plays", some of which were first staged after ''Volpone'', although we cannot know for certain which roles he played. In 1610, John Davies of Hereford wrote that "good Will" played "kingly" roles. In 1709, Rowe passed down a tradition that Shakespeare played the ghost of Hamlet's father. Later traditions maintain that he also played Adam in ''As You Like It'' and the Chorus in ''Henry V'', though scholars doubt the sources of the information.

Shakespeare divided his time between London and Stratford during his career. In 1596, the year before he bought New Place as his family home in Stratford, Shakespeare was living in the parish of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, north of the River Thames. He moved across the river to Southwark by 1599, the year his company constructed the Globe Theatre there. By 1604, he had moved north of the river again, to an area north of St Paul's Cathedral with many fine houses. There he rented rooms from a French Huguenot called Christopher Mountjoy, a maker of ladies' wigs and other headgear.

Later years and death

Rowe was the first biographer to pass down the tradition that Shakespeare retired to Stratford some years before his death; but retirement from all work was uncommon at that time, and Shakespeare continued to visit London. In 1612 he was called as a witness in a court case concerning the marriage settlement of Mountjoy's daughter, Mary. In March 1613 he bought a gatehouse in the former Blackfriars priory; and from November 1614 he was in London for several weeks with his son-in-law, John Hall.

After 1606–1607, Shakespeare wrote fewer plays, and none are attributed to him after 1613. His last three plays were collaborations, probably with John Fletcher, who succeeded him as the house playwright for the King’s Men.

Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and was survived by his wife and two daughters. Susanna had married a physician, John Hall, in 1607, and Judith had married Thomas Quiney, a vintner, two months before Shakespeare’s death.

In his will, Shakespeare left the bulk of his large estate to his elder daughter Susanna. The terms instructed that she pass it down intact to "the first son of her body". The Quineys had three children, all of whom died without marrying. The Halls had one child, Elizabeth, who married twice but died without children in 1670, ending Shakespeare’s direct line. Shakespeare's will scarcely mentions his wife, Anne, who was probably entitled to one third of his estate automatically. He did make a point, however, of leaving her "my second best bed", a bequest that has led to much speculation. Some scholars see the bequest as an insult to Anne, whereas others believe that the second-best bed would have been the matrimonial bed and therefore rich in significance.

Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church two days after his death. The epitaph carved into the stone slab covering his grave includes a curse against moving his bones, which was carefully avoided during restoration of the church in 2008:

::''Good frend for Iesvs sake forbeare,'' ::''To digg the dvst encloased heare.'' ::''Bleste be ye man yt spares thes stones,'' ::''And cvrst be he yt moves my bones.''

Modern spelling: ::"Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear," ::"To dig the dust enclosed here." ::"Blessed be the man that spares these stones," ::"And cursed be he who moves my bones."

Sometime before 1623, a funerary monument was erected in his memory on the north wall, with a half-effigy of him in the act of writing. Its plaque compares him to Nestor, Socrates, and Virgil. In 1623, in conjunction with the publication of the First Folio, the Droeshout engraving was published.

Shakespeare has been commemorated in many statues and memorials around the world, including funeral monuments in Southwark Cathedral and Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Plays

Most playwrights of the period typically collaborated with others at some point, and critics agree that Shakespeare did the same, mostly early and late in his career. Some attributions, such as ''Titus Andronicus'' and the early history plays, remain controversial, while ''The Two Noble Kinsmen'' and the lost ''Cardenio'' have well-attested contemporary documentation. Textual evidence also supports the view that several of the plays were revised by other writers after their original composition.

The first recorded works of Shakespeare are ''Richard III'' and the three parts of ''Henry VI'', written in the early 1590s during a vogue for historical drama. Shakespeare's plays are difficult to date, however, and studies of the texts suggest that ''Titus Andronicus'', ''The Comedy of Errors'', ''The Taming of the Shrew'' and ''The Two Gentlemen of Verona'' may also belong to Shakespeare’s earliest period. His first histories, which draw heavily on the 1587 edition of Raphael Holinshed's ''Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland'', dramatise the destructive results of weak or corrupt rule and have been interpreted as a justification for the origins of the Tudor dynasty. The early plays were influenced by the works of other Elizabethan dramatists, especially Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe, by the traditions of medieval drama, and by the plays of Seneca. ''The Comedy of Errors'' was also based on classical models, but no source for ''The Taming of the Shrew'' has been found, though it is related to a separate play of the same name and may have derived from a folk story. Like ''The Two Gentlemen of Verona'', in which two friends appear to approve of rape, the ''Shrew's'' story of the taming of a woman's independent spirit by a man sometimes troubles modern critics and directors.

Shakespeare's early classical and Italianate comedies, containing tight double plots and precise comic sequences, give way in the mid-1590s to the romantic atmosphere of his greatest comedies. ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a witty mixture of romance, fairy magic, and comic lowlife scenes. Shakespeare's next comedy, the equally romantic ''Merchant of Venice'', contains a portrayal of the vengeful Jewish moneylender Shylock, which reflects Elizabethan views but may appear derogatory to modern audiences. The wit and wordplay of ''Much Ado About Nothing'', the charming rural setting of ''As You Like It'', and the lively merrymaking of ''Twelfth Night'' complete Shakespeare's sequence of great comedies. After the lyrical ''Richard II'', written almost entirely in verse, Shakespeare introduced prose comedy into the histories of the late 1590s, ''Henry IV, parts 1'' and ''2'', and ''Henry V''. His characters become more complex and tender as he switches deftly between comic and serious scenes, prose and poetry, and achieves the narrative variety of his mature work. This period begins and ends with two tragedies: ''Romeo and Juliet'', the famous romantic tragedy of sexually charged adolescence, love, and death; and ''Julius Caesar''—based on Sir Thomas North's 1579 translation of Plutarch's ''Parallel Lives''—which introduced a new kind of drama. According to Shakespearean scholar James Shapiro, in ''Julius Caesar'' "the various strands of politics, character, inwardness, contemporary events, even Shakespeare's own reflections on the act of writing, began to infuse each other".

In the early 17th century, Shakespeare wrote the so-called "problem plays" ''Measure for Measure'', ''Troilus and Cressida'', and ''All's Well That Ends Well'' and a number of his best known tragedies. Many critics believe that Shakespeare's greatest tragedies represent the peak of his art. The titular hero of one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies, ''Hamlet'', has probably been discussed more than any other Shakespearean character, especially for his famous soliloquy "To be or not to be; that is the question". Unlike the introverted Hamlet, whose fatal flaw is hesitation, the heroes of the tragedies that followed, Othello and King Lear, are undone by hasty errors of judgement. The plots of Shakespeare's tragedies often hinge on such fatal errors or flaws, which overturn order and destroy the hero and those he loves. In ''Othello'', the villain Iago stokes Othello's sexual jealousy to the point where he murders the innocent wife who loves him. In ''King Lear'', the old king commits the tragic error of giving up his powers, initiating the events which lead to the murder of his daughter and the torture and blinding of the Earl of Gloucester. According to the critic Frank Kermode, "the play offers neither its good characters nor its audience any relief from its cruelty". In '' Macbeth'', the shortest and most compressed of Shakespeare's tragedies, uncontrollable ambition incites Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, to murder the rightful king and usurp the throne, until their own guilt destroys them in turn. In this play, Shakespeare adds a supernatural element to the tragic structure. His last major tragedies, ''Antony and Cleopatra'' and ''Coriolanus'', contain some of Shakespeare's finest poetry and were considered his most successful tragedies by the poet and critic T. S. Eliot.

In his final period, Shakespeare turned to romance or tragicomedy and completed three more major plays: ''Cymbeline'', ''The Winter's Tale'' and ''The Tempest'', as well as the collaboration, ''Pericles, Prince of Tyre''. Less bleak than the tragedies, these four plays are graver in tone than the comedies of the 1590s, but they end with reconciliation and the forgiveness of potentially tragic errors. Some commentators have seen this change in mood as evidence of a more serene view of life on Shakespeare's part, but it may merely reflect the theatrical fashion of the day. Shakespeare collaborated on two further surviving plays, ''Henry VIII'' and ''The Two Noble Kinsmen'', probably with John Fletcher.

Performances

It is not clear for which companies Shakespeare wrote his early plays. The title page of the 1594 edition of ''Titus Andronicus'' reveals that the play had been acted by three different troupes. After the plagues of 1592–3, Shakespeare's plays were performed by his own company at The Theatre and the Curtain in Shoreditch, north of the Thames. Londoners flocked there to see the first part of ''Henry IV'', Leonard Digges recording, "Let but Falstaff come, Hal, Poins, the rest...and you scarce shall have a room". When the company found themselves in dispute with their landlord, they pulled The Theatre down and used the timbers to construct the Globe Theatre, the first playhouse built by actors for actors, on the south bank of the Thames at Southwark. The Globe opened in autumn 1599, with ''Julius Caesar'' one of the first plays staged. Most of Shakespeare's greatest post-1599 plays were written for the Globe, including ''Hamlet'', ''Othello'' and ''King Lear''.

After the Lord Chamberlain's Men were renamed the King's Men in 1603, they entered a special relationship with the new King James. Although the performance records are patchy, the King's Men performed seven of Shakespeare's plays at court between 1 November 1604 and 31 October 1605, including two performances of ''The Merchant of Venice''. After 1608, they performed at the indoor Blackfriars Theatre during the winter and the Globe during the summer. The indoor setting, combined with the Jacobean fashion for lavishly staged masques, allowed Shakespeare to introduce more elaborate stage devices. In ''Cymbeline'', for example, Jupiter descends "in thunder and lightning, sitting upon an eagle: he throws a thunderbolt. The ghosts fall on their knees."

The actors in Shakespeare's company included the famous Richard Burbage, William Kempe, Henry Condell and John Heminges. Burbage played the leading role in the first performances of many of Shakespeare's plays, including ''Richard III'', ''Hamlet'', ''Othello'', and ''King Lear''. The popular comic actor Will Kempe played the servant Peter in ''Romeo and Juliet'' and Dogberry in ''Much Ado About Nothing'', among other characters. He was replaced around the turn of the 16th century by Robert Armin, who played roles such as Touchstone in ''As You Like It'' and the fool in ''King Lear''. In 1613, Sir Henry Wotton recorded that ''Henry VIII'' "was set forth with many extraordinary circumstances of pomp and ceremony". On 29 June, however, a cannon set fire to the thatch of the Globe and burned the theatre to the ground, an event which pinpoints the date of a Shakespeare play with rare precision.

Textual sources

In 1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell, two of Shakespeare's friends from the King's Men, published the First Folio, a collected edition of Shakespeare's plays. It contained 36 texts, including 18 printed for the first time. Many of the plays had already appeared in quarto versions—flimsy books made from sheets of paper folded twice to make four leaves. No evidence suggests that Shakespeare approved these editions, which the First Folio describes as "stol'n and surreptitious copies". Alfred Pollard termed some of them "bad quartos" because of their adapted, paraphrased or garbled texts, which may in places have been reconstructed from memory. Where several versions of a play survive, each differs from the other. The differences may stem from copying or printing errors, from notes by actors or audience members, or from Shakespeare's own papers. In some cases, for example ''Hamlet'', ''Troilus and Cressida'' and ''Othello'', Shakespeare could have revised the texts between the quarto and folio editions. In the case of King Lear, however, while most modern additions do conflate them, the 1623 folio version is so different from the 1608 quarto, that the ''Oxford Shakespeare'' prints them both, arguing that they cannot be conflated without confusion.

Poems

In 1593 and 1594, when the theatres were closed because of plague, Shakespeare published two narrative poems on erotic themes, ''Venus and Adonis'' and ''The Rape of Lucrece''. He dedicated them to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. In ''Venus and Adonis'', an innocent Adonis rejects the sexual advances of Venus; while in ''The Rape of Lucrece'', the virtuous wife Lucrece is raped by the lustful Tarquin. Influenced by Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'', the poems show the guilt and moral confusion that result from uncontrolled lust. Both proved popular and were often reprinted during Shakespeare's lifetime. A third narrative poem, ''A Lover's Complaint'', in which a young woman laments her seduction by a persuasive suitor, was printed in the first edition of the ''Sonnets'' in 1609. Most scholars now accept that Shakespeare wrote ''A Lover's Complaint''. Critics consider that its fine qualities are marred by leaden effects. ''The Phoenix and the Turtle'', printed in Robert Chester's 1601 ''Love's Martyr'', mourns the deaths of the legendary phoenix and his lover, the faithful turtle dove. In 1599, two early drafts of sonnets 138 and 144 appeared in ''The Passionate Pilgrim'', published under Shakespeare's name but without his permission.

Sonnets

Published in 1609, the ''Sonnets'' were the last of Shakespeare's non-dramatic works to be printed. Scholars are not certain when each of the 154 sonnets was composed, but evidence suggests that Shakespeare wrote sonnets throughout his career for a private readership. Even before the two unauthorised sonnets appeared in ''The Passionate Pilgrim'' in 1599, Francis Meres had referred in 1598 to Shakespeare's "sugred Sonnets among his private friends". Few analysts believe that the published collection follows Shakespeare's intended sequence. He seems to have planned two contrasting series: one about uncontrollable lust for a married woman of dark complexion (the "dark lady"), and one about conflicted love for a fair young man (the "fair youth"). It remains unclear if these figures represent real individuals, or if the authorial "I" who addresses them represents Shakespeare himself, though Wordsworth believed that with the sonnets "Shakespeare unlocked his heart". The 1609 edition was dedicated to a "Mr. W.H.", credited as "the only begetter" of the poems. It is not known whether this was written by Shakespeare himself or by the publisher, Thomas Thorpe, whose initials appear at the foot of the dedication page; nor is it known who Mr. W.H. was, despite numerous theories, or whether Shakespeare even authorised the publication. Critics praise the ''Sonnets'' as a profound meditation on the nature of love, sexual passion, procreation, death, and time.

Style

Shakespeare's first plays were written in the conventional style of the day. He wrote them in a stylised language that does not always spring naturally from the needs of the characters or the drama. The poetry depends on extended, sometimes elaborate metaphors and conceits, and the language is often rhetorical—written for actors to declaim rather than speak. The grand speeches in ''Titus Andronicus'', in the view of some critics, often hold up the action, for example; and the verse in ''The Two Gentlemen of Verona'' has been described as stilted.

Soon, however, Shakespeare began to adapt the traditional styles to his own purposes. The opening soliloquy of ''Richard III'' has its roots in the self-declaration of Vice in medieval drama. At the same time, Richard’s vivid self-awareness looks forward to the soliloquies of Shakespeare's mature plays. No single play marks a change from the traditional to the freer style. Shakespeare combined the two throughout his career, with ''Romeo and Juliet'' perhaps the best example of the mixing of the styles. By the time of ''Romeo and Juliet'', ''Richard II'', and ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' in the mid-1590s, Shakespeare had begun to write a more natural poetry. He increasingly tuned his metaphors and images to the needs of the drama itself.

Shakespeare's standard poetic form was blank verse, composed in iambic pentameter. In practice, this meant that his verse was usually unrhymed and consisted of ten syllables to a line, spoken with a stress on every second syllable. The blank verse of his early plays is quite different from that of his later ones. It is often beautiful, but its sentences tend to start, pause, and finish at the end of lines, with the risk of monotony. Once Shakespeare mastered traditional blank verse, he began to interrupt and vary its flow. This technique releases the new power and flexibility of the poetry in plays such as ''Julius Caesar'' and ''Hamlet''. Shakespeare uses it, for example, to convey the turmoil in Hamlet's mind:

:''Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting'' :''That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay'' :''Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly—'' :''And prais'd be rashness for it—let us know'' :''Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well...''

:''Hamlet'', Act 5, Scene 2, 4–8

After ''Hamlet'', Shakespeare varied his poetic style further, particularly in the more emotional passages of the late tragedies. The literary critic A. C. Bradley described this style as "more concentrated, rapid, varied, and, in construction, less regular, not seldom twisted or elliptical". In the last phase of his career, Shakespeare adopted many techniques to achieve these effects. These included run-on lines, irregular pauses and stops, and extreme variations in sentence structure and length. In ''Macbeth'', for example, the language darts from one unrelated metaphor or simile to another: "was the hope drunk/ Wherein you dressed yourself?" (1.7.35–38); "...pity, like a naked new-born babe/ Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd/ Upon the sightless couriers of the air..." (1.7.21–25). The listener is challenged to complete the sense. The late romances, with their shifts in time and surprising turns of plot, inspired a last poetic style in which long and short sentences are set against one another, clauses are piled up, subject and object are reversed, and words are omitted, creating an effect of spontaneity.

Shakespeare combined poetic genius with a practical sense of the theatre. Like all playwrights of the time, he dramatised stories from sources such as Plutarch and Holinshed. He reshaped each plot to create several centres of interest and to show as many sides of a narrative to the audience as possible. This strength of design ensures that a Shakespeare play can survive translation, cutting and wide interpretation without loss to its core drama. As Shakespeare’s mastery grew, he gave his characters clearer and more varied motivations and distinctive patterns of speech. He preserved aspects of his earlier style in the later plays, however. In Shakespeare's late romances, he deliberately returned to a more artificial style, which emphasised the illusion of theatre.

Influence

Shakespeare's work has made a lasting impression on later theatre and literature. In particular, he expanded the dramatic potential of characterisation, plot, language, and genre. Until ''Romeo and Juliet'', for example, romance had not been viewed as a worthy topic for tragedy. Soliloquies had been used mainly to convey information about characters or events; but Shakespeare used them to explore characters' minds. His work heavily influenced later poetry. The Romantic poets attempted to revive Shakespearean verse drama, though with little success. Critic George Steiner described all English verse dramas from Coleridge to Tennyson as "feeble variations on Shakespearean themes."

Shakespeare influenced novelists such as Thomas Hardy, William Faulkner, and Charles Dickens. The American novelist Herman Melville's soliloquies owe much to Shakespeare; his Captain Ahab in ''Moby-Dick'' is a classic tragic hero, inspired by ''King Lear''. Scholars have identified 20,000 pieces of music linked to Shakespeare's works. These include two operas by Giuseppe Verdi, ''Otello'' and ''Falstaff'', whose critical standing compares with that of the source plays. Shakespeare has also inspired many painters, including the Romantics and the Pre-Raphaelites. The Swiss Romantic artist Henry Fuseli, a friend of William Blake, even translated ''Macbeth'' into German. The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud drew on Shakespearean psychology, in particular that of Hamlet, for his theories of human nature.

In Shakespeare's day, English grammar, spelling and pronunciation were less standardised than they are now, and his use of language helped shape modern English. Samuel Johnson quoted him more often than any other author in his ''A Dictionary of the English Language'', the first serious work of its type. Expressions such as "with bated breath" (''Merchant of Venice'') and "a foregone conclusion" (''Othello'') have found their way into everyday English speech.

Critical reputation

Shakespeare was not revered in his lifetime, but he received his share of praise. In 1598, the cleric and author Francis Meres singled him out from a group of English writers as "the most excellent" in both comedy and tragedy. And the authors of the ''Parnassus'' plays at St John's College, Cambridge, numbered him with Chaucer, Gower and Spenser. In the First Folio, Ben Jonson called Shakespeare the "Soul of the age, the applause, delight, the wonder of our stage", though he had remarked elsewhere that "Shakespeare wanted art". Between the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and the end of the 17th century, classical ideas were in vogue. As a result, critics of the time mostly rated Shakespeare below John Fletcher and Ben Jonson. Thomas Rymer, for example, condemned Shakespeare for mixing the comic with the tragic. Nevertheless, poet and critic John Dryden rated Shakespeare highly, saying of Jonson, "I admire him, but I love Shakespeare". For several decades, Rymer's view held sway; but during the 18th century, critics began to respond to Shakespeare on his own terms and acclaim what they termed his natural genius. A series of scholarly editions of his work, notably those of Samuel Johnson in 1765 and Edmond Malone in 1790, added to his growing reputation. By 1800, he was firmly enshrined as the national poet. In the 18th and 19th centuries, his reputation also spread abroad. Among those who championed him were the writers Voltaire, Goethe, Stendhal and Victor Hugo.

During the Romantic era, Shakespeare was praised by the poet and literary philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge; and the critic August Wilhelm Schlegel translated his plays in the spirit of German Romanticism. In the 19th century, critical admiration for Shakespeare's genius often bordered on adulation. "That King Shakespeare," the essayist Thomas Carlyle wrote in 1840, "does not he shine, in crowned sovereignty, over us all, as the noblest, gentlest, yet strongest of rallying signs; indestructible". The Victorians produced his plays as lavish spectacles on a grand scale. The playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw mocked the cult of Shakespeare worship as "bardolatry". He claimed that the new naturalism of Ibsen's plays had made Shakespeare obsolete.

The modernist revolution in the arts during the early 20th century, far from discarding Shakespeare, eagerly enlisted his work in the service of the avant-garde. The Expressionists in Germany and the Futurists in Moscow mounted productions of his plays. Marxist playwright and director Bertolt Brecht devised an epic theatre under the influence of Shakespeare. The poet and critic T. S. Eliot argued against Shaw that Shakespeare's "primitiveness" in fact made him truly modern. Eliot, along with G. Wilson Knight and the school of New Criticism, led a movement towards a closer reading of Shakespeare's imagery. In the 1950s, a wave of new critical approaches replaced modernism and paved the way for "post-modern" studies of Shakespeare. By the eighties, Shakespeare studies were open to movements such as structuralism, feminism, New Historicism, African American studies, and queer studies.

Speculation about Shakespeare

Authorship

Around 150 years after Shakespeare's death, doubts began to be expressed about the authorship of the works attributed to him. Proposed alternative candidates include Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Several "group theories" have also been proposed. Only a small minority of academics believe there is reason to question the traditional attribution, but interest in the subject, particularly the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship, continues into the 21st century.

Religion

Some scholars claim that members of Shakespeare's family were Catholics, at a time when Catholic practice was against the law. Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, certainly came from a pious Catholic family. The strongest evidence might be a Catholic statement of faith signed by John Shakespeare, found in 1757 in the rafters of his former house in Henley Street. The document is now lost, however, and scholars differ as to its authenticity. In 1591 the authorities reported that John Shakespeare had missed church "for fear of process for debt", a common Catholic excuse. In 1606 the name of William's daughter Susanna appears on a list of those who failed to attend Easter communion in Stratford. Scholars find evidence both for and against Shakespeare's Catholicism in his plays, but the truth may be impossible to prove either way.

Sexuality

Few details of Shakespeare's sexuality are known. At 18, he married the 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, who was pregnant. Susanna, the first of their three children, was born six months later on 26 May 1583. However, over the centuries readers have pointed to Shakespeare's sonnets as evidence of his love for a young man. Others read the same passages as the expression of intense friendship rather than sexual love. At the same time, the 26 so-called "Dark Lady" sonnets, addressed to a married woman, are taken as evidence of heterosexual liaisons.

Portraiture

There is no written description of Shakespeare's physical appearance and no evidence that he ever commissioned a portrait, so the Droeshout engraving, which Ben Jonson approved of as a good likeness, and his Stratford monument provide the best evidence of his appearance. From the 18th century, the desire for authentic Shakespeare portraits fuelled claims that various surviving pictures depicted Shakespeare. That demand also led to the production of several fake portraits, as well as misattributions, repaintings and relabelling of portraits of other people.

List of works

Classification of the plays

Shakespeare's works include the 36 plays printed in the First Folio of 1623, listed below according to their folio classification as comedies, histories and tragedies. Two plays not included in the First Folio, ''The Two Noble Kinsmen'' and ''Pericles, Prince of Tyre'', are now accepted as part of the canon, with scholars agreed that Shakespeare made a major contribution to their composition. No Shakespearean poems were included in the First Folio.

In the late 19th century, Edward Dowden classified four of the late comedies as romances, and though many scholars prefer to call them ''tragicomedies'', his term is often used. These plays and the associated ''Two Noble Kinsmen'' are marked with an asterisk (*) below. In 1896, Frederick S. Boas coined the term "problem plays" to describe four plays: ''All's Well That Ends Well'', ''Measure for Measure'', ''Troilus and Cressida'' and ''Hamlet''. "Dramas as singular in theme and temper cannot be strictly called comedies or tragedies", he wrote. "We may therefore borrow a convenient phrase from the theatre of today and class them together as Shakespeare's problem plays." The term, much debated and sometimes applied to other plays, remains in use, though ''Hamlet'' is definitively classed as a tragedy. The other problem plays are marked below with a double dagger (‡).

Plays thought to be only partly written by Shakespeare are marked with a dagger (†) below. Other works occasionally attributed to him are listed as apocrypha.

Works

; Comedies

''All's Well That Ends Well'' ‡

''As You Like It''

''The Comedy of Errors''

''Love's Labour's Lost''

''Measure for Measure'' ‡

''The Merchant of Venice''

''The Merry Wives of Windsor''

''A Midsummer Night's Dream''

''Much Ado About Nothing''

''Pericles, Prince of Tyre'' *†

''The Taming of the Shrew''

''The Tempest'' *

''Twelfth Night''

''The Two Gentlemen of Verona''

''The Two Noble Kinsmen'' *†

''The Winter's Tale'' *

; Histories

''King John''

''Richard II''

''Henry IV, Part 1''

''Henry IV, Part 2''

''Henry V''

''Henry VI, Part 1'' †

''Henry VI, Part 2''

''Henry VI, Part 3''

''Richard III''

''Henry VIII'' †

; Tragedies

''Romeo and Juliet''

''Coriolanus''

''Titus Andronicus'' †

''Timon of Athens'' †

''Julius Caesar''

''Macbeth'' †

''Hamlet''

''Troilus and Cressida'' ‡

''King Lear''

''Othello''

''Antony and Cleopatra''

''Cymbeline'' *

; Poems

''Shakespeare's sonnets''

''Venus and Adonis''

''The Rape of Lucrece''

''The Passionate Pilgrim''

''The Phoenix and the Turtle''

''A Lover's Complaint''

; Lost plays

''Love's Labour's Won''

''The History of Cardenio'' †

; Apocrypha

''Arden of Faversham''

''The Birth of Merlin''

''Edward III''

''Locrine''

''The London Prodigal''

''The Puritan''

''The Second Maiden's Tragedy''

''Sir John Oldcastle''

''Thomas Lord Cromwell''

''A Yorkshire Tragedy''

''Sir Thomas More''

See also

World Shakespeare Bibliography

Wikipedia Books: William Shakespeare

Notes

References

Bibliography

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Cercignani, Fausto, ''Shakespeare's Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation'', Oxford, University Press (Clarendon Press), 1981.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

External links

Open Source Shakespeare complete works, with search engine and concordance

Open Shakespeare complete works, search engine, stats and more all as open content/open source

Internet Shakespeare Editions

First Four Folios at Miami University Library, digital collection

Shakespeare's Will from The National Archives

William Shakespeare at Project Gutenberg

==Related information==

Category:1564 births Category:1616 deaths Category:16th-century actors Category:16th-century English people Category:17th-century English people Category:English dramatists and playwrights Category:English poets Category:English Renaissance dramatists Category:People from Stratford-upon-Avon Category:People illustrated on sterling banknotes Category:People of the Tudor period Category:Sonneteers Category:People educated at King Edward VI School Stratford-upon-Avon

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name	Dr. Seuss
pseudonym	Dr. Seuss, Theo LeSieg, Rosetta Stone, Theophrastus Seuss
birth name	Theodor Seuss Geisel
birth date	March 02, 1904
birth place	Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
death date	September 24, 1991
death place	San Diego, California, U.S.
alma mater	Dartmouth College
occupation	Writer, cartoonist, animator, book publisher, artist
nationality	American
genre	Children's literature
notableworks	''The Cat in the Hat''''Green Eggs and Ham''''One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish''''How the Grinch Stole Christmas!''''Fox in Socks''''Horton Hears a Who!''
spouse	Helen Palmer Geisel (1927–1967)Audrey Stone Dimond (1968–1991)
website	http://www.seussville.com/
signature	Dr Seuss signature.svg }}

Theodor Seuss Geisel (; March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991) was an American writer, poet, and cartoonist most widely known for his children's books written under the pen names Dr. Seuss, Theo LeSieg and, in one case, Rosetta Stone.

He published 46 children's books, which were often characterized by imaginative characters, rhyme, and frequent use of trisyllabic meter. His most celebrated books include the bestselling ''Green Eggs and Ham'', ''The Cat in the Hat'', ''One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish'', ''Horton Hatches the Egg'', ''Horton Hears a Who!'', and ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas!''. Numerous adaptations of his work have been created, including 11 television specials, three feature films, a Broadway musical and four television series. He won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958 for ''Horton Hatches the Egg'' and again in 1961 for ''And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street''.

Geisel also worked as an illustrator for advertising campaigns, most notably for Flit and Standard Oil, and as a political cartoonist for ''PM'', a New York City newspaper. During World War II, he worked in an animation department of the U.S Army, where he wrote ''Design for Death'', a film that later won the 1947 Academy Award for Documentary Feature.

Geisel's birthday, March 2, has been adopted as the annual date for National Read Across America Day, an initiative on reading created by the National Education Association.

Life and career

Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, to Theodor Robert and Henrietta (Seuss) Geisel. His father, the son of German immigrant parents, managed the family brewery and later supervised (1931–1960) Springfield's public park system. Mulberry Street in Springfield, made famous in Dr. Seuss' first children's book ''And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street!'' is less than a mile southwest of his boyhood home on Fairfield Street.

College

Geisel attended Springfield's Classical High School, and entered Dartmouth College in fall 1921 as a member of the Class of 1925. At Dartmouth, he joined the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and the humor magazine ''Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern,'' eventually rising to the rank of editor-in-chief.

While at Dartmouth, Geisel was caught drinking gin with nine friends in his room. As a result, Dean Craven Laycock insisted that he resign from all extracurricular activities, including the college humor magazine. To continue work on the ''Jack-O-Lantern'' without the administration's knowledge, Geisel began signing his work with the pen name "Seuss". His first work signed as "Dr. Seuss" appeared after he graduated, six months into his work for ''The Judge'' where his weekly feature ''Birdsies and Beasties'' appeared. Geisel was encouraged in his writing by professor of rhetoric W. Benfield Pressey, whom he described as his "big inspiration for writing" at Dartmouth.

After Dartmouth, he entered Lincoln College, Oxford, intending to earn a Doctor of Philosophy in English literature. At Oxford, he met his future wife, Helen Palmer; he married her in 1927, and returned to the United States without earning a degree.

Earliest post-college publications

He began submitting humorous articles and illustrations to ''Judge,'' ''Life,'' ''Vanity Fair,'' and ''Liberty.'' One notable "Technocracy Number" made fun of the technocracy movement and featured satirical rhymes at the expense of Frederick Soddy. The July 16, 1927 issue of the ''The Saturday Evening Post'' published his first cartoon under the name Seuss. He became nationally famous from his advertisements for Flit, a common insecticide at the time. His slogan, "Quick, Henry, the Flit!" became a popular catchphrase. Geisel supported himself and his wife through the Great Depression by drawing advertising for General Electric, NBC, Standard Oil, and many other companies. In 1935, he wrote and drew a short-lived comic strip called ''Hejji.''

In 1937, while Geisel was returning from an ocean voyage to Europe, the rhythm of the ship's engines inspired the poem that became his first book, ''And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street!''. It was rejected 27 times (numbers will vary). Geisel wrote three more children's books before World War II, two of which are, atypically for him, in prose.

World War II-era work

As World War II began, Geisel turned to political cartoons, drawing over 400 in two years as editorial cartoonist for the left-leaning New York City daily newspaper, ''PM.'' Geisel's political cartoons, later published in ''Dr. Seuss Goes to War,'' denounced Hitler and Mussolini and were highly critical of non-interventionists ("isolationists"), most notably Charles Lindbergh, who opposed US entry into the war. One cartoon depicted all Japanese Americans as latent traitors or fifth-columnists, while at the same time other cartoons deplored the racism at home against Jews and blacks that harmed the war effort. His cartoons were strongly supportive of President Roosevelt's handling of the war, combining the usual exhortations to ration and contribute to the war effort with frequent attacks on Congress (especially the Republican Party), parts of the press (such as the New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune and Washington Times-Herald), and others for criticism of Roosevelt, criticism of aid to the Soviet Union, investigation of suspected Communists, and other offenses that he depicted as leading to disunity and helping the Nazis, intentionally or inadvertently.

In 1942, Geisel turned his energies to direct support of the U.S. war effort. First, he worked drawing posters for the Treasury Department and the War Production Board. Then, in 1943, he joined the Army and was commander of the Animation Dept of the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army Air Forces, where he wrote films that included ''Your Job in Germany,'' a 1945 propaganda film about peace in Europe after World War II, ''Our Job in Japan,'' and the ''Private Snafu'' series of adult army training films. While in the Army, he was awarded the Legion of Merit. ''Our Job in Japan'' became the basis for the commercially released film, ''Design for Death'' (1947), a study of Japanese culture that won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature. ''Gerald McBoing-Boing'' (1950), which was based on an original story by Seuss, won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film.

Later years

After the war, Geisel and his wife moved to La Jolla, California. Returning to children's books, he wrote many works, including such favorites as ''If I Ran the Zoo'', (1950), ''Horton Hears a Who!'' (1954), ''Horton Hatches the Egg'' (1954), ''If I Ran the Circus'' (1956),''The Cat in the Hat'' (1957), ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas'' (1957) and ''Green Eggs and Ham'' (1960). Although he received numerous awards throughout his career, Geisel won neither the Caldecott Medal nor the Newbery Medal. Three of his titles from this period were, however, chosen as Caldecott runners-up (now referred to as Caldecott Honor books): ''McElligot's Pool'' (1937), ''Bartholomew and the Oobleck'' (1939), and ''If I Ran the Zoo'' (1950). Dr Seuss also wrote the musical and fantasy film ''The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T,'' which was released in 1953. The movie was a critical and financial failure, and Geisel never attempted another feature film. During the 1950s he also published a number of illustrated short stories, mostly in RedBook Magazine. Some of these were later collected (in volumes such as ''The Sneetches and Other Stories'' or reworked into independent books (''If I Ran the Zoo''). A number have never been reprinted since their original appearances.

In May 1954, ''Life'' magazine published a report on illiteracy among school children, which concluded that children were not learning to read because their books were boring. Accordingly, William Ellsworth Spaulding, the director of the education division at Houghton Mifflin who later became its Chairman, compiled a list of 348 words he felt were important for first-graders to recognize and asked Geisel to cut the list to 250 words and write a book using only those words. Spaulding challenged Geisel to "bring back a book children can't put down." Nine months later, Geisel, using 236 of the words given to him, completed ''The Cat in the Hat.'' It was described as a ''tour de force'' by some reviewers-—it retained the drawing style, verse rhythms, and all the imaginative power of Geisel's earlier works, but because of its simplified vocabulary could be read by beginning readers. ''The Cat in the Hat'' and subsequent books written for young children achieved significant international success and they remain very popular today. In 2009 ''Green Eggs and Ham'' sold 540,366 copies, ''The Cat in the Hat'' sold 452,258 copies, and ''One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish'' (1960) sold 409,068 copies—outselling the majority of newly published children's books.

Geisel went on to write many other children's books, both in his new simplified-vocabulary manner (sold as Beginner Books) and in his older, more elaborate style. The Beginner Books were not easy for Geisel and reportedly took him months to complete.

On October 23, 1967, suffering from a long struggle with illnesses including cancer, as well as emotional pain over her husband's affair with Audrey Stone Dimond, Geisel's wife, Helen Palmer Geisel, committed suicide. Geisel married Dimond on June 21, 1968. Though he devoted most of his life to writing children's books, Geisel had no children of his own. He would say, when asked about this, "You have 'em; I'll entertain 'em."

Death and posthumous honors

Geisel died of throat cancer on September 24, 1991, after several years of poor health, in San Diego, California. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered. On December 1, 1995, four years after his death, UCSD's University Library Building was renamed Geisel Library in honor of Geisel and Audrey for the generous contributions they made to the library and their devotion to improving literacy.

While living in La Jolla, the United States Postal Service and others frequently confused Geisel with another La Jolla resident, Dr. Hans Suess. Their names have been linked together posthumously: the personal papers of Hans Suess are housed in the Geisel Library at UC San Diego.

In 2002, the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden opened in his birthplace of Springfield, Massachusetts; it features sculptures of Geisel and of many of his characters. On May 28, 2008, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver announced that Geisel would be inducted into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts. The induction ceremony took place December 15 and his widow Audrey accepted the honor in his place. On March 2, 2009, the web search engine Google temporarily changed its logo to commemorate Geisel's birthday (a practice it often follows for various holidays and events). At his alma mater, Dartmouth, where over 90% of incoming first-year students participate in pre-registration Dartmouth Outing Club trips into the New Hampshire wilderness, it is traditional for students returning from the trips to overnight at Dartmouth's Moosilauke Ravine Lodge, where they are served green eggs and ham for breakfast in honor of Dr. Seuss. Dr. Seuss's honors include two Academy awards, two Emmy awards, a Peabody award, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, and the Pulitzer Prize.

Pen names and pronunciations

Geisel's pen name is regularly pronounced , an anglicized pronunciation inconsistent with his German surname. He himself noted that it rhymed with "voice" (his own pronunciation being ) and Alexander Liang (his collaborator on the Dartmouth ''Jack-O-Lantern'') wrote of him:

:You’re wrong as the deuce :And you shouldn’t rejoice :If you’re calling him Seuss. :He pronounces it Soice.

Geisel switched to the anglicized pronunciation because it "evoked a figure advantageous for an author of children’s books to be associated with—Mother Goose" and because most people used this pronunciation.

For books that Geisel wrote and others illustrated, he used the pen name "Theo LeSieg" ("LeSieg" is "Geisel" spelled backward).

Political views

Geisel was a liberal Democrat and a supporter of President Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. His early political cartoons show a passionate opposition to fascism, and he urged to oppose it, both before and after the entry of the United States into World War II. His cartoons tended to regard the fear of communism as overstated, finding the greater threat in the Dies Committee and those who threatened to cut the US' "life line" to Stalin and Soviet Russia, the ones carrying "our war load".

Geisel's cartoons also called attention to the early stages of the Holocaust and denounced discrimination in the USA against African Americans and Jews. Geisel himself experienced anti-Semitism: in his college days, he was mistaken for a Jew and denied entry into conservative social circles, although he was actually of German ancestry and a practicing Christian.

Geisel supported the Japanese American internment during World War II. His treatment of the Japanese and of Japanese Americans, whom he often failed to differentiate between, has struck many readers as a moral blind spot. On the issue of the Japanese, he is quoted as saying:

After the war, though, Geisel overcame his feelings of animosity, using his book ''Horton Hears a Who!'' (1954) as an allegory for the Hiroshima bombing and the American post-war occupation of Japan, as well as dedicating the book to a Japanese friend.

In 1948, after living and working in Hollywood for years, Geisel moved to La Jolla, California. It is said that when he went to register to vote in La Jolla, some Republican friends called him over to where they were registering voters, but Geisel said, "You, my friends, are over there, but I am going over here [to the Democratic registration]."

In his books

Though Geisel made a point of not beginning the writing of his stories with a moral in mind, stating that "kids can see a moral coming a mile off," he was not against writing about issues; he said that "there's an inherent moral in any story," and he remarked that he was "subversive as hell."

Many of Geisel's books express his views on a remarkable variety of social and political issues: ''The Lorax'' (1971), about environmentalism and anti-consumerism; ''The Sneetches'' (1961), about racial equality; ''The Butter Battle Book'' (1984), about the arms race; ''Yertle the Turtle'' (1958), about Hitler and anti-authoritarianism; ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas'' (1957), criticizing the materialism and consumerism of the Christmas season; and ''Horton Hears a Who!'' (1950), about anti-isolationism and internationalism. Shortly before the end of the 1972–1974 Watergate scandal, in which United States president Richard Nixon resigned, Geisel converted one of his famous children's books into a polemic. "Richard M. Nixon, Will You Please Go Now!" was published in major newspapers through the column of his friend Art Buchwald.

The line "A person's a person, no matter how small!!" from ''Horton Hears a Who!'' has grown, despite the objections of Geisel's widow, into widespread use on the pro-life side of the issue. While Geisel preferred to let his work speak for itself, in 1986 when the line first started being used by the pro-life movement, Geisel, who would speak out to protect his characters from exploitation, demanded a retraction and received one. In its original context it is unrelated to abortion issues.

Although Geisel's books teach children about so many social problems, his works for children do not speak to feminist issues. His longer children's stories included few important female characters, and it is difficult for them to be called positive portrayals. The most prominent female characters are Gertrude McFuzz (who is vanity personified, although she does learn her lesson at the end of the story) and Mayzie, the very irresponsible bird who laid the egg in Horton Hatches the Egg. The most positive female character in the works is probably Sally in The Cat in the Hat, but she says few words.

==Poetic meters== Geisel wrote most of his books in anapestic tetrameter, a poetic meter employed by many poets of the English literary canon. This is often suggested as one of the reasons that Geisel's writing was so well-received.

Anapestic tetrameter consists of four rhythmic units, anapests, each composed of two weak beats followed by one strong beat; often, the first weak syllable is omitted, or an additional weak syllable is added at the end. An example of this meter can be found in Geisel's "Yertle the Turtle", from ''Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories'':

:"And today the Great Yertle, that Marvelous he :Is King of the Mud. That is all he can see."

The consistency of his meter was one of his hallmarks; the many imitators and parodists of Geisel are often unable to write in strict anapestic tetrameter, or are unaware that they should, and thus sound clumsy in comparison.

Some books by Geisel that are written mainly in anapestic tetrameter also contain many lines written in amphibrachic tetrameter, such as these from ''If I Ran the Circus'':

:"All ready to put up the tents for my circus. :I think I will call it the Circus McGurkus.

:"And NOW comes an act of Enormous Enormance! :No former performers performed this performance!"

Geisel also wrote verse in trochaic tetrameter, an arrangement of a strong beat followed by a weak beat, with four units per line (for example, the title of ''One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish''). The formula for trochaic meter permits the final weak position in the line to be omitted, which facilitates the construction of rhymes.

Geisel generally maintained trochaic meter only for brief passages, and for longer stretches typically mixed it with iambic tetrameter, which consists of a weak beat followed by a strong, and is generally considered easier to write. Thus, for example, the magicians in ''Bartholomew and the Oobleck'' make their first appearance chanting in trochees (thus resembling the witches of Shakespeare's ''Macbeth''):

:"Shuffle, duffle, muzzle, muff"

then switch to iambs for the oobleck spell:

:"Go make the Oobleck tumble down :On every street, in every town!"

Artwork

Geisel's earlier artwork often employed the shaded texture of pencil drawings or watercolors, but in children's books of the postwar period he generally employed the starker medium of pen and ink, normally using just black, white, and one or two colors. Later books such as ''The Lorax'' used more colors.

Geisel's figures are often rounded and somewhat droopy. This is true, for instance, of the faces of the Grinch and of the Cat in the Hat. It is also true of virtually all buildings and machinery that Geisel drew: although these objects abound in straight lines in real life, for buildings, this could be accomplished in part through choice of architecture. For machines, for example, ''If I Ran the Circus'' includes a droopy hoisting crane and a droopy steam calliope.

Geisel evidently enjoyed drawing architecturally elaborate objects. His endlessly varied (but never rectilinear) palaces, ramps, platforms, and free-standing stairways are among his most evocative creations. Geisel also drew elaborate imaginary machines, of which the Audio-Telly-O-Tally-O-Count, from ''Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book'', is one example. Geisel also liked drawing outlandish arrangements of feathers or fur, for example, the 500th hat of ''Bartholomew Cubbins'', the tail of ''Gertrude McFuzz'', and the pet for girls who like to brush and comb, in ''One Fish Two Fish''.

Geisel's images often convey motion vividly. He was fond of a sort of ''voilà'' gesture, in which the hand flips outward, spreading the fingers slightly backward with the thumb up; this is done by Ish, for instance, in ''One Fish Two Fish'' when he creates fish (who perform the gesture themselves with their fins), in the introduction of the various acts of ''If I Ran the Circus'', and in the introduction of the Little Cats in ''The Cat in the Hat Comes Back''. He was also fond of drawing hands with interlocked fingers, which looked as though the characters were twiddling their thumbs.

Geisel also follows the cartoon tradition of showing motion with lines, for instance in the sweeping lines that accompany Sneelock's final dive in ''If I Ran the Circus''. Cartoonist's lines are also used to illustrate the action of the senses (sight, smell, and hearing) in ''The Big Brag'' and even of thought, as in the moment when the Grinch conceives his awful idea.

For over 60 years, Dr. Seuss’s illustrations brought a visual realization to his fantastic and imaginary worlds. However, his artistic talent went far beyond the printed page, as in his Secret Art works – the paintings and sculptures he did at night for himself that he rarely exhibited during his lifetime. Seuss always dreamed of sharing these works with his fans and had entrusted his wife, Audrey, to carry out his wishes once he was gone. Audrey, too, believed the work deserved further recognition and that Ted himself would one day be evaluated not only as an author, but also as an artist in his own right. In 1997, this dream was realized when The Art of Dr. Seuss project was launched. For the first time in history, collectors were able to see and acquire lithographs, serigraphs and sculptures reproduced from Geisel’s original drawings and paintings. In her introduction to the collection Audrey Geisel wrote, “I remember telling Ted that there would come a day when many of his paintings would be seen and he would thus share with his fans another facet of himself – his private self. That day has come. I am glad.” This historic project has opened the world’s eyes to the unique artistic talent of Dr. Seuss and, as such, galleries, museums and collectors have helped make Audrey Geisel’s promise, and Dr. Seuss’s dream, a reality. Now, just 15 years after Ted passed away, these artworks have toured to leading galleries and museums across the world, establishing Seuss as a significant artist of the 20th century. Today limited edition prints and sculptures of Dr. Seuss artworks can now be found at galleries along side the works of Rembrandt, Picasso and Miro.

Recurring images

Geisel's early work in advertising and editorial cartooning produced sketches that received more perfect realization later in the children's books. Often, the expressive use to which Geisel put an image later on was quite different from the original.

An editorial cartoon of July 16, 1941 depicts a whale resting on the top of a mountain, as a parody of American isolationists, especially Charles Lindbergh. This was later rendered (with no apparent political content) as the Wumbus of ''On Beyond Zebra'' (1955). Seussian whales (cheerful and balloon-shaped, with long eyelashes) also occur in ''McElligot's Pool'', ''If I Ran the Circus'', and other books. Another editorial cartoon from 1941 shows a long cow with many legs and udders, representing the conquered nations of Europe being milked by Adolf Hitler. This later became the Umbus of ''On Beyond Zebra.'' The tower of turtles in a 1942 editorial cartoon prefigures a similar tower in ''Yertle the Turtle.'' This theme also appeared in a ''Judge'' cartoon as one letter of a hieroglyphic message, and in Geisel's short-lived comic strip ''Hejji.'' Geisel once stated that Yertle the Turtle ''was'' Adolf Hitler.

Little cats A B and C (as well as the rest of the alphabet) who spring from each other's hats appeared in a Ford ad.

The connected beards in ''Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?'' appear frequently in Geisel's work, most notably in ''Hejji,'' which featured two goats joined at the beard, ''The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T,'' which featured two roller-skating guards joined at the beard, and a political cartoon in which Nazism and the America First movement are portrayed as "the men with the Siamese Beard."

Geisel's earliest elephants were for advertising and had somewhat wrinkly ears, much as real elephants do. With ''And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street!'' (1937) and ''Horton Hatches the Egg'' (1940), the ears became more stylized, somewhat like angel wings and thus appropriate to the saintly Horton. During World War II, the elephant image appeared as an emblem for India in four editorial cartoons. Horton and similar elephants appear frequently in the postwar children's books. While drawing advertisements for Flit, Geisel became adept at drawing insects with huge stingers, shaped like a gentle S-curve and with a sharp end that included a rearward-pointing barb on its lower side. Their facial expressions depict gleeful malevolence. These insects were later rendered in an editorial cartoon as a swarm of Allied aircraft (1942), and again as the Sneedle of ''On Beyond Zebra,'' and yet again as the Skritz in ''I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew.''

There are many examples of creatures who arrange themselves in repeating patterns, such as the "Two and fro walkers, who march in five layers", and the Through-Horns Jumping Deer in ''If I Ran the Circus'', and the arrangement of birds which the protagonist of ''Oh, The Places You'll Go!'' walks through, as the narrator admonishes him to "...always be detrous and deft, and never mix up your right foot with your left."

Publications

Over the course of his long career, Geisel wrote over 60 books. Though most were published under his well-known pseudonym, Dr. Seuss, he also authored over a dozen books as Theo LeSieg and one as Rosetta Stone. As one of the most popular children's authors of all time, Geisel's books have topped many bestseller lists, sold over 222 million copies, and been translated into more than 15 languages. In 2000, ''Publishers Weekly'' compiled a list of the best-selling children's books of all time; of the top 100 hardcover books, 16 were written by Geisel, including ''Green Eggs and Ham'', at number 4, ''The Cat in the Hat'', at number 9, and ''One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish'', at number 13. In the years after his death in 1991, two additional books were published based on his sketches and notes: ''Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!'' and ''Daisy-Head Mayzie''. ''My Many Colored Days'', originally written in 1973, was posthumously published in 1996. More recently, seven stories originally published in magazines during 1950 and 1951 will be released in a collection entitled ''The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories'' in September 2011.

At various times Geisel also wrote books for adults that used the same style of verse and pictures: ''The Seven Lady Godivas'' (1937; reprinted 1985), which included nude depictions; ''You're Only Old Once!'' (written in 1987 when Geisel was 83) which chronicles an old man's journey through a clinic, a satire of the inefficiency of clinics and his last book (written a year before his death) ''Oh, The Places You'll Go!'', a popular gift for graduating students.

Adaptations

For most of his career, Geisel was reluctant to have his characters marketed in contexts outside of his own books. However, he did allow for the creation of several animated cartoons, an art form in which he himself had gained experience during the Second World War, and gradually relaxed his policy as he aged.

The first adaptation of one of Geisel's works was a cartoon version of ''Horton Hatches the Egg'', animated at Warner Brothers in 1942. Directed by Robert Clampett, it was presented as part of the Looney Tunes series, and included a number of gags not present in the original narrative, including a fish committing suicide and a Katharine Hepburn imitation by Maisie.

In 1959, Geisel authorized Revell, the well-known plastic model-making company, to make a series of "animals" that snapped together rather than being glued together, and could be assembled, disassembled and re-assembled "in thousands" of ways. The series was called the "Dr. Seuss Zoo" and included Gowdy the Dowdy Grackle, Norval the Bashful Blinket, Tingo the Noodle Topped Stroodle and Roscoe the Many Footed Lion. The basic body parts were the same and all were interchangeable, and so it was possible for children to combine parts from various characters in essentially unlimited ways in creating their own animal characters (Revell encouraged this by selling Gowdy, Norval and Tingo together in a "Gift Set" as well as individually). Revell also made a conventional glue-together "beginner's kit" of The Cat in the Hat.

In 1966, Geisel authorized the eminent cartoon artist Chuck Jones, his friend and former colleague from the war, to make a cartoon version of ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas''; Geisel was credited as a co-producer, along with Jones, under his real name, "Ted Geisel." The cartoon, narrated by Boris Karloff, who also provided the voice of the Grinch, was very faithful to the original book, and is considered a classic by many to this day; it is often broadcast as an annual Christmas television special. In 1970, an adaptation of ''Horton Hears a Who!'' was directed by Chuck Jones for Warner Bros. Pictures.

From 1971 to 1983, Geisel wrote seven Warner Bros. specials, which were produced by Warner Bros. Pictures and aired on CBS: ''Horton Hatches the Egg'' (1971), ''Dr. Seuss on the Loose'' (1977), and ''The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat'' (1983). Several of the specials were nominated for and won multiple Academy Awards.

A Soviet paint-on-glass-animated short film called ''Welcome'' (an adaptation of ''Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose'') was made in 1986. The last adaptation of Geisel's works before he died was ''The Butter Battle Book'', a television special based on the book of the same name, directed by adult animation legend Ralph Bakshi. Geisel himself called the special "the most faithful adaptation of his work."

After Geisel died of cancer at the age of 87 in 1991, his widow Audrey Geisel was placed in charge of all licensing matters. She approved a live-action feature film version of ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas'' starring Jim Carrey, as well as a Seuss-themed Broadway musical called ''Seussical,'' and both premiered in 2000. ''The Grinch'' has had limited engagement runs on Broadway during the Christmas season, after premiering in 1998 (under the title ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas'') at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, where it has become a Christmas tradition. In 2003, another live-action film was released, this time an adaptation of ''The Cat in the Hat'' that featured Mike Myers as the title character. Audrey Geisel was vocal in her dislike of the film, especially the casting of Myers as the Cat in the Hat, and stated that there would be no further live-action adaptations of Geisel's books. However, an animated CGI feature film adaptation of ''Horton Hears a Who!'' was approved, and was eventually released on March 14, 2008, to critical acclaim.

Four television series have been adapted from Geisel's work. The first, ''Gerald McBoing-Boing'', was an animated television adaptation of Geisel's 1951 cartoon of the same name and lasted three months between 1956 and 1957. The second, ''The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss,'' was a mix of live-action and puppetry by Jim Henson Television, the producers of The Muppets. It aired for one season on Nickelodeon in the United States, from 1996 to 1997. The third, ''Gerald McBoing-Boing,'' is a remake of the 1956 series. Produced in Canada by Cookie Jar Entertainment, it ran from 2005 to 2007. The fourth, ''The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!'', produced by Portfolio Entertainment Inc., began on August 7, 2010 in Canada and September 6, 2010 in the United States and is currently still showing.

Geisel's books and characters are also featured in Seuss Landing, one of many islands at the Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando, Florida. In an attempt to match Geisel's visual style, there are reportedly "no straight lines" in Seuss Landing.

References

Further reading

Documentary aired on the Public Television System.

External links

Seussville site Random House

New York Times obituary

Dr. Seuss biography on Lambiek Comiclopedia

The Register of Dr. Seuss Collection UC San Diego

The Advertising Artwork of Dr. Seuss UC San Diego

''Dr. Seuss Went to War:'' A Catalog of Political Cartoons UC San Diego

Dr. Seuss' Commencement Speech Lake Forest College

Dr. Seuss / Theodor Geisel artwork can be viewed at American Art Archives web site

A Tale of Two Cartoonists, Hugh Turley, Hyattsville Life and Times, April 2009

Cartoon of John Haynes Holmes. By ''Dr.Seuss''

Category:1904 births Category:1991 deaths Category:American children's writers Category:American editorial cartoonists Category:American illustrators Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:American poets Category:American writers of German descent Category:Children's poets Category:First Motion Picture Unit personnel Category:Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal winners Category:People from Springfield, Massachusetts Category:Recipients of the Legion of Merit Category:Requests for audio pronunciation Category:United States Army Air Forces officers Category:Writers from California Category:Writers from Massachusetts Category:Writers who illustrated their own writing

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name	William Shakespeare
background	solo_singer
birth name	John Stanley Cave
born	November 19, 1948
died
alias	Johnny Cabe, Billy Shake
origin	Sydney, Australia
instrument	vocals
genre	glam, pop
occupation	singer
years active	1966–1993
label	Albert
associated acts	The Amazons
website	}}

William Shakespeare (19 November 1948 – 5 October 2010) was the stage name of Australian Glam rock singer John Stanley Cave, also known as John Cabe or Billy Shake. He had two Australian hit singles, "Can't Stop Myself from Loving You" which peaked at #2 on the Kent Music Report in 1974 and "My Little Angel" which peaked at #1 in 1975. Both hits were written by Vanda & Young, who also groomed Shakespeare into a Glam rocker.

Early life

Shakespeare was born as John Stanley Cave in 1948 and grew up in Sydney, New South Wales.

He was vocalist for beat music group, The Amazons, with Nick Barlow on guitar, Harry Brus on bass guitar, Chris Carroll on guitar and Dally Carroll on drums. In 1966, they released a single, "Ain't that Lovin' You Baby". After The Amazons, Shakespeare continued performing in Sydney clubs as Johnny Cabe. In early 1974, Shakespeare was in Albert Studios where noted Australian producers/songwriters Vanda & Young (ex-The Easybeats) were recording "Can't Stop Myself from Loving You" for another singer who was unable to reach its high notes.

Career

Cave's falsetto voice was suitable so Vanda & Young signed him to Albert Productions and groomed him into William Shakespeare as a glam rocker along the lines of Alvin Stardust or Gary Glitter. "Can't Stop Myself from Loving You" was released as a single in July and peaked at #2 nationally (#1 in Sydney & Melbourne) Kent Music Report. Another Vanda & Young/Albert Productions act was hard rock group, AC/DC who were looking for a new lead singer, on the short-list were: Shakespeare, John Paul Young and eventual vocalist Bon Scott.

In 1974, in the planning stages for the ABC-TV series ''Countdown'', it was suggested that Shakespeare host the show. However, this was rejected, with Ian Meldrum becoming a regular contributor instead. A number of guest hosts such as Shirley Strachan, John Paul Young and Daryl Braithwaite compered the show in its early days on an ''ad hoc'' basis.

In November 1974, Shakespeare released his debut album, Can't Stop Myself From Loving You, produced by Vanda & Young for Albert Productions. The album peaked in the top 30 on the Kent Music Report.

His second single, "My Little Angel" followed in December and peaked at #1 on the Kent Music Report for three weeks in February 1975 and he became a national pop star. Shakespeare appeared on teen-orientated ''Countdown'' in his glam rock costume numerous times. The two singles and album were followed by two more singles, "Just the Way You Are" in April and "Last Night" in May 1976, but he had no further Top 50 charting success.

Fall

In 1975 Cave was convicted of carnal knowledge with a 15-year-old girl from his Melbourne fan club, he received two years probation. He left Albert Productions in 1977 and had no further recordings—his pop music career was over due to his conviction and changes in music styles.

Therapy

In 1978, Shakespeare, who had an alcohol addiction and clinical depression, was treated with Deep Sleep Therapy (in combination with electroconvulsive therapy and other therapies) by Dr Harry Bailey at the Chelmsford Private Hospital for three weeks. From 1979 he performed as Billy Shake in Sydney clubs but generated little income. A temporary revival of his singing career occurred in 1990 when Melbourne listeners of 3MMM voted "My Little Angel" as the Daggiest song of their generation and a cover version was provided by The Melody Lords.

Decline and death

By 2001, Shakespeare was homeless and lived in a ticket booth at an oval next to St George's Leagues Club in Kogarah, where he was found and assisted by Lindy Morrison (ex-The Go-Betweens drummer) of Support Act Limited, a company concerned with assisting artists in hard times. In 2009, he was living in government housing in the southern Sydney suburb of Riverwood.

He died suddenly in Sydney on 5 October 2010. Many fond tributes to William Shakespeare's life and music appeared in the Australian media just after his death became known.

Discography

Albums

''Can't Stop Myself from Loving You''' – Albert Productions (25 November 1974) AUS #27

Singles

"Can't Stop Myself from Loving You" – Albert Productions (1974) AUS #2

"My Little Angel" – Albert Productions (1974) AUS #1

"Just the Way You Are" – Albert Productions (1975) AUS #57

"Last Night" – Albert Productions (1976) AUS #97

See also

1974 in music

List of artists who reached number one on the Australian singles chart

References

External links

Obituary

''George Negus Tonight'' transcript of interview with John Cave, 2005.

Popular ''Countdown'' Acts – William Shakespeare. Contains biography and photos from late 1970s.

Category:1948 births Category:2010 deaths Category:Australian male singers Category:Australian pop singers Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction

sv:William Shakespeare (sångare)

name	William S. Burroughs
birth date	February 05, 1914
birth place	St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
death date	August 02, 1997
death place	Lawrence, Kansas, U.S.
occupation	Author
pseudonym	William Lee
spouse	Ilse von Klapper (1937–1946)Joan Vollmer (1946–1951)
children	William S. Burroughs, Jr.
relatives	William Seward Burroughs I, grandfatherIvy Lee, maternal uncle
genre	Postmodern, satire
movement	Beat
influences	Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Arthur Rimbaud, Jack Black, Jean Genet, Wilhelm Reich, Jean Paul Sartre, Samuel Beckett, Henry Miller, Alfred Korzybski, Oswald Spengler, Brion Gysin, Dashiell Hammett, Denton Welch, Joseph Conrad, Tristan Tzara, Jonathan Swift
influenced	Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, J. G. Ballard, Jim Carroll, Norman Mailer, Kathy Acker, Paul Di Filippo, Thomas Pynchon, Mark Leyner, Dennis Cooper, Will Self, Gus Van Sant, William Gibson, Clive Barker, Alan Moore, Irvine Welsh, David Cronenberg, Lydia Lunch, Patti Smith, Robert Wyatt, David Bowie, Brian Eno, Grant Morrison, Genesis P-Orridge, John Zorn, Kurt Cobain, Ken Kesey, Ian Curtis, Lou Reed, Tom Waits, Hunter S. Thompson, Poppy Z. Brite
signature	William S Burroughs signature.svg }}

William Seward Burroughs II (; also known by his pen name William Lee; February 05, 1914 – August 02, 1997) was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. Burroughs was a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author who affected popular culture as well as literature. He is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th century." Burroughs wrote 18 novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays. Five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences. Burroughs also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, and made many appearances in films.

He was born to a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri, grandson of the founder of the Burroughs Corporation, William Seward Burroughs I, and nephew of public relations manager Ivy Lee. Burroughs began writing essays and journals in early adolescence. He left home in 1932 to attend Harvard University, studying English and anthropology, but after being turned down by the Office of Strategic Services and U.S. Navy to serve in World War II, dropped out and spent the next twenty years working a variety of jobs. In 1943 while living in New York City, he befriended Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, the mutually influential foundation of what became the countercultural movement of the Beat Generation, while becoming involved in the drug addiction that affected him for the rest of his life.

Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, primarily drawn from his experiences as a heroin addict, as he lived throughout Mexico City, London, Paris, Berlin, the South American Amazon and Tangier in Morocco. Finding success with his confessional first novel, ''Junkie'' (1953), Burroughs is perhaps best known for his third novel ''Naked Lunch'' (1959), a work fraught with controversy that underwent a court case under the sodomy laws. With Brion Gysin, he also popularized the literary cut-up technique in works such as The Nova Trilogy (1961–64). In 1983, Burroughs was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1984 was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France. Jack Kerouac called Burroughs the "greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift," a reputation he owes to his "lifelong subversion" of the moral, political and economic systems of modern American society, articulated in often darkly humorous sardonicism. J. G. Ballard considered Burroughs to be "the most important writer to emerge since the Second World War," while Norman Mailer declared him "the only American writer who may be conceivably possessed by genius."

Burroughs had one child in 1947, William Seward Burroughs III, with his second wife Joan Vollmer, who died in 1951 in Mexico City after Burroughs's accidental manslaughter, an event that deeply permeated all of his writings. Burroughs died at his home in Lawrence, Kansas after suffering a heart attack in 1997.

Early life and education

Burroughs was born in 1914, the younger of two sons born to Mortimer Perry Burroughs (June 16, 1885 – January 5, 1965) and Laura Hammon Lee (August 5, 1888 – October 20, 1970). The Burroughses were a prominent family of English ancestry in St. Louis, Missouri. His grandfather, William Seward Burroughs I, founded the Burroughs Adding Machine company, which evolved into the Burroughs Corporation. Burroughs' mother, Laura Hammon Lee, was the daughter of a minister whose family claimed to be related to Robert E. Lee. His maternal uncle, Ivy Lee, was an advertising pioneer later employed as a publicist for the Rockefellers. His father ran an antique and gift shop, Cobblestone Gardens; first in St. Louis, then in Palm Beach, Florida.

As a boy, Burroughs lived on Pershing Ave. in St. Louis's Central West End. He attended John Burroughs School in St. Louis where his first published essay, "Personal Magnetism," was printed in the ''John Burroughs Review'' in 1929. He then attended the Los Alamos Ranch School in New Mexico, which was stressful for him. The school was a boarding school for the wealthy, "where the spindly sons of the rich could be transformed into manly specimens." Burroughs kept journals documenting an erotic attachment to another boy. According to his own account, he destroyed these later, ashamed of their content. Due to the repressive context where he grew up, and from which he fled, that is, a "family where displays of affection were considered embarrassing," he kept his sexual orientation concealed well into adulthood when he became a well known homosexual writer after the publication of ''Naked Lunch'' in 1959. Some say that he was expelled from Los Alamos after taking chloral hydrate in Santa Fe with a fellow student. Yet, according to his own account, he left voluntarily: "During the Easter vacation of my second year I persuaded my family to let me stay in St. Louis." While at Harvard, Burroughs made trips to New York City and was introduced to the gay subculture there. He visited lesbian dives, piano bars, and the Harlem and Greenwich Village homosexual underground with Richard Stern, a wealthy friend from Kansas City. They would drive from Boston to New York in a reckless fashion. Once, Stern scared Burroughs so much, he asked to be let out of the vehicle.

Burroughs graduated from Harvard in 1936. According to Ted Morgan's ''Literary Outlaw'',

His parents, upon his graduation, had decided to give him a monthly allowance of $200 out of their earnings from Cobblestone Gardens, a tidy sum in those days. It was enough to keep him going, and indeed it guaranteed his survival for the next twenty-five years, arriving with welcome regularity. The allowance was a ticket to freedom; it allowed him to live where he wanted to and to forgo employment.

Burroughs's parents sold the rights to his grandfather's invention and had no share in the Burroughs Corporation. Shortly before the 1929 stock market crash they sold their stock for $200,000.

Europe

After leaving Harvard, Burroughs's formal education ended, except for brief flirtations as a graduate student of anthropology at Harvard and as a medical student in Vienna, Austria. He traveled to Europe, which proved a window into Austrian and Hungarian Weimar-era homosexuality; he picked up boys in steam baths in Vienna, and moved in a circle of exiles, homosexuals, and runaways. There, he met Ilse Klapper, a Jewish woman fleeing the country's Nazi government. The two were never romantically involved, but Burroughs married her, in Croatia, against the wishes of his parents, to allow her to gain a visa to the United States. She made her way to New York City, and eventually divorced Burroughs, although they remained friends for many years. After returning to the U.S., he held a string of uninteresting jobs. In 1939, his emotional health became a concern for his parents, especially after he deliberately severed the last joint of his left little finger, right at the knuckle, to impress a man with whom he was infatuated. This event made its way into his early fiction as the short story "The Finger."

Beginning of the Beats

Burroughs enlisted in the U.S. Army early in 1942, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into World War II. But when he was classified as a 1-A Infantry, not an officer, he became dejected. His mother recognized her son's depression and got Burroughs a civilian disability discharge — a release from duty based on the premise he should have not been allowed to enlist due to previous mental instability. After being evaluated by a family friend, who was also a neurologist at a psychiatric treatment center, Burroughs waited five months in limbo at Jefferson Barracks outside St. Louis before being discharged. During that time he met a Chicago soldier also awaiting release, and once Burroughs was free, he moved to Chicago and held a variety of jobs, including one as an exterminator. When two of his friends from St. Louis, Lucien Carr, a University of Chicago student, and David Kammerer, Carr's homosexual admirer, left for New York City, Burroughs followed.

Joan Vollmer

In 1944, Burroughs began living with Joan Vollmer Adams in an apartment they shared with Jack Kerouac and Edie Parker, Kerouac's first wife. Vollmer Adams was married to a GI with whom she had a young daughter, Julie Adams. Burroughs and Kerouac got into trouble with the law for failing to report a murder involving Lucien Carr, who had killed David Kammerer in a confrontation over Kammerer's incessant and unwanted advances. This incident inspired Burroughs and Kerouac to collaborate on a novel titled ''And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks'', completed in 1945. The two fledgling authors were unable to get it published, but the manuscript was eventually published in November 2008 by Grove Press and Penguin Books.

During this time, Burroughs began using morphine and quickly became addicted. He eventually sold heroin in Greenwich Village to support his habit.

Vollmer also became an addict, but her drug of choice was Benzedrine, an amphetamine sold over the counter at that time. Because of her addiction and social circle, her husband immediately divorced her after returning from the war. Vollmer would become Burroughs’ common-law wife. Burroughs was soon arrested for forging a narcotics prescription and was sentenced to return to his parents' care in St. Louis. Vollmer's addiction led to a temporary psychosis, which resulted in her admission to a hospital, and the custody of her child was endangered. Yet after Burroughs completed his "house arrest" in St. Louis, he returned to New York, released Vollmer from the psychiatric ward of Bellevue Hospital, and moved with her and her daughter to Texas. Vollmer soon became pregnant with Burroughs's child. Their son, William S. Burroughs, Jr., was born in 1947. The family moved briefly to New Orleans in 1948.

Burroughs was arrested after police searched his home and found letters between him and Allen Ginsberg referring to a possible delivery of marijuana.

Mexico and South America

Burroughs fled to Mexico to escape possible detention in Louisiana's Angola state prison. Vollmer and their children followed him. Burroughs planned to stay in Mexico for at least five years, the length of his charge's statute of limitations. Burroughs also attended classes at Mexico City College in 1950 studying Spanish as well as "Mexican picture writing" (codices) and the Mayan language with R. H. Barlow.

In 1951, Burroughs shot and killed Vollmer in a drunken game of "William Tell" at a party above the American-owned Bounty Bar in Mexico City. He spent 13 days in jail before his brother came to Mexico City and bribed Mexican lawyers and officials to release Burroughs on bail while he awaited trial for the killing, which was ruled culpable homicide. Vollmer’s daughter, Julie Adams, went to live with her grandmother, and William S. Burroughs, Jr. went to St. Louis to live with his grandparents. Burroughs reported every Monday morning to the jail in Mexico City while his prominent Mexican attorney worked to resolve the case. According to James Grauerholz two witnesses had agreed to testify that the gun had gone off accidentally while he was checking to see if it was loaded, and the ballistics experts were bribed to support this story. Nevertheless, the trial was continuously delayed and Burroughs began to write what would eventually become the short novel ''Queer'' while awaiting his trial. However, when his attorney fled Mexico after his own legal problems involving a car accident and altercation with the son of a government official, Burroughs decided, according to Ted Morgan, to "skip" and return to the United States. He was convicted in absentia of homicide and sentenced to two years, which was suspended. Although Burroughs was writing before the shooting of Joan Vollmer, this event marked him and, biographers argue, his work for the rest of his life.

After leaving Mexico, Burroughs drifted through South America for several months, looking for a drug called yagé, which promised the user telepathy. A book, composed of letters between Burroughs and Ginsberg, ''The Yage Letters,'' was published in 1963 by City Lights Books.

Beginning of literary career

Burroughs later said that shooting Vollmer was a pivotal event in his life, and one which provoked his writing:

"I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan's death, and to a realization of the extent to which this event has motivated and formulated my writing. I live with the constant threat of possession, and a constant need to escape from possession, from control. So the death of Joan brought me in contact with the invader, the Ugly Spirit, and maneuvered me into a life long struggle, in which I have had no choice except to write my way out."

Yet he had begun to write in 1945. Burroughs and Kerouac collaborated on ''And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks'', a mystery novel loosely based on the Carr/Kammerer situation that was left unpublished. Years later, in the documentary ''What Happened to Kerouac?'', Burroughs described it as "not a very distinguished work." An excerpt of this work, in which Burroughs and Kerouac wrote alternating chapters, was finally published in ''Word Virus'', a compendium of William Burroughs's writing that was published by his biographer after his death in 1997.

Before Vollmer died, Burroughs had largely completed his first two novels in Mexico, although ''Queer'' was not published until 1985. ''Junkie'' was written at the urging of Allen Ginsberg, who was instrumental in getting the work published, even as a cheap mass market paperback. Ace Books published the novel in 1953 as part of an Ace Double under the pen name William Lee, retitling it ''Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict.'' (it was later republished as ''Junkie'' or ''Junky'').

''Naked Lunch''

During 1953, Burroughs was at loose ends. Due to legal problems, he was unable to live in the cities towards which he was most inclined. He spent time with his parents in Palm Beach, Florida, and New York City with Allen Ginsberg. When Ginsberg refused his romantic advances, Burroughs went to Rome to meet Alan Ansen on a vacation financed from his parents' continuing support. When he found Rome and Ansen’s company dreary, inspired by Paul Bowles' fiction, he decided to head for Tangier, Morocco. In a home owned by a known procurer of homosexual prostitutes for visiting American and English men, he rented a room and began to write a large body of text that he personally referred to as ''Interzone''. Burroughs lived in Tangier for several months, before returning to the United States where he suffered several personal indignities—Ginsberg was in California and refused to see him, A. A. Wyn, the publisher of ''Junkie'', was not forthcoming with his royalties and his parents were threatening to cut off his allowance.

All signs pointed him back to Tangier, a place where his parents would have to continue the support and one where drugs were freely available. He left in November 1954 and spent the next four years there working on the fiction that would later become ''Naked Lunch'', as well as attempting to write commercial articles about Tangier. He sent these writings to Ginsberg, his literary agent for ''Junkie'', but none were published until 1989 when ''Interzone'', a collection of short stories, was published. Under the strong influence of a marijuana confection known as majoun and a German-made opioid called Eukodol, Burroughs settled in to write. Eventually, Ginsberg and Kerouac, who had traveled to Tangier in 1957, helped Burroughs type, edit, and arrange these episodes into ''Naked Lunch''.

Whereas ''Junkie'' and ''Queer'' were conventional in style, ''Naked Lunch'' was his first venture into a non-linear style. After the publication of ''Naked Lunch'', a book whose creation was to a certain extent the result of a series of contingencies, Burroughs was exposed to Brion Gysin's cut-up technique at the Beat Hotel in Paris in September 1959. He began slicing up phrases and words to create new sentences. At the Beat Hotel Burroughs discovered "a port of entry" into Gysin's canvases: "I don't think I had ever seen painting until I saw the painting of Brion Gysin." The two would cultivate a long-term friendship that revolved around a mutual interest in artworks and cut-up techniques. Scenes were slid together with little care for narrative. Perhaps thinking of his crazed physician, Dr Benway, he described ''Naked Lunch'' as a book that could be cut into at any point. Although not considered science fiction, the book does seem to forecast—with eerie prescience — such later phenomena as AIDS, liposuction, autoerotic fatalities, and the crack pandemic.

Excerpts from ''Naked Lunch'' were first published in the United States in 1958. The novel was initially rejected by City Lights Books, the publisher of Ginsberg's ''Howl'', and Olympia Press publisher Maurice Girodias, who had published English language novels in France that were controversial for their subjective views of sex and anti-social characters. But Allen Ginsberg worked to get excerpts published in ''Black Mountain Review'' and ''Chicago Review'' in 1958. Irving Rosenthal, student editor of ''Chicago Review'', a quarterly journal partially subsidized by the university, promised to publish more excerpts from ''Naked Lunch'', but he was fired from his position in 1958 after ''Chicago Daily News'' columnist Jack Mabley called the first excerpt obscene. Rosenthal went on to publish more in his newly created literary journal ''Big Table No. 1''; however, these copies elicited such contempt, the editors were accused of sending obscene material through the United States Mail by the United States Postmaster General, who ruled that copies could not be mailed to subscribers. This controversy made ''Naked Lunch'' interesting to Girodias again, and he published the novel in 1959.

After the novel was published, it slowly became notorious across Europe and the United States, garnering interest from not just members of the counterculture of the 1960s, but literary critics such as Mary McCarthy. Once published in the United States, ''Naked Lunch'' was prosecuted as obscene by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, followed by other states. In 1966 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declared the work "not obscene" on the basis of criteria developed largely to defend the book. The case against Burroughs's novel still stands as the last obscenity trial against a work of literature—that is, a work consisting of words only, and not including illustrations or photographs — prosecuted in the United States.

The manuscripts that produced ''Naked Lunch'' also produced the later works ''The Soft Machine'' (1961), ''The Ticket That Exploded'' (1962), and ''Nova Express'' (1963). These novels feature extensive use of the cut-up technique, which influenced all of Burroughs' subsequent fiction to a degree. During his friendship and artistic collaborations with Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville the technique was combined with images, Gysin's paintings, and sound, via Somerville's tape recorders. Burroughs was so dedicated to the cut-up method that he often defended his use of the technique before editors and publishers, most notably Dick Seaver at Grove Press in the 1960s and Holt, Rinehart & Winston in the 1980s. The cut-up method, because of its random or mechanical basis for text generation, combined with the possibilities of mixing in text written by other writers, deemphasizes the traditional role of the writer as creator or originator of a string of words, while simultaneously exalting the importance of the writer's sensibility as an editor. In this sense the cut-up method may be considered as analogous to the collage method in the visual arts.

Paris and the 'Beat Hotel'

Burroughs moved into a rundown hotel in the Latin Quarter of Paris in 1959 when ''Naked Lunch'' was still looking for a publisher. Tangier with its easy access to drugs, small groups of homosexuals, growing political unrest and odd collection of criminals became increasingly unhealthy for Burroughs. He went to Paris to meet Ginsberg and talk with Olympia Press. In so doing, he left a brewing legal problem, which eventually transferred itself to Paris. Paul Lund, a former British career criminal and cigarette smuggler whom Burroughs met in Tangier, was arrested on suspicion of importing narcotics into France. Lund gave up Burroughs and some evidence implicated Burroughs in the possible importation into France of narcotics. Once again, the man faced criminal charges, this time in Paris for conspiracy to import opiates, when the Moroccan authorities forwarded their investigation to French officials. Yet it was under this impending threat of criminal sanction that Maurice Girodias published ''Naked Lunch'', and it was helpful in getting Burroughs a suspended sentence, as a literary career, according to Ted Morgan, is a respected profession in France.

The 'Beat Hotel' was a typical European-style rooming house hotel, with common toilets on every floor, and a small place for personal cooking in the room. Life there was documented by the photographer Harold Chapman, who lived in the attic room. This shabby, inexpensive hotel was populated by Gregory Corso, Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky for several months after ''Naked Lunch'' first appeared. The actual process of publication was partly a function of its 'cut-up' presentation to the printer. Girodias had given Burroughs only ten days to prepare the manuscript for print galleys, and Burroughs sent over the manuscript in pieces, preparing the parts in no particular order. When it was published in this authentically random manner, Burroughs liked it better than the initial plan. International rights to the work were sold soon after, and Burroughs used the $3,000 advance from Grove Press to buy drugs. ''Naked Lunch'' was featured in a 1959 ''Life'' magazine cover story, partly as an article that highlighted the growing Beat literary movement.

During this time Burroughs found outlet for material otherwise rendered unpublishable in Jeff Nuttall's My Own Mag

The London years

Burroughs left Paris for London in 1966 to take the cure again with Dr. Dent, a well-known English medical doctor who spearheaded a painless heroin withdrawal treatment using an electronic box affixed to the patient's temple. Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg would take this same cure over a decade later from Dr. Dent's nurse, Smitty. Though he ultimately relapsed, Burroughs ended up working out of London for six years, traveling back to the United States on several occasions, including one time escorting his son to Lexington Narcotics Farm and Prison after the younger Burroughs had been convicted of prescription fraud in Florida. In the "Afterward" to the compilation of his son's two previously published novels ''Speed'' and ''Kentucky Ham'', Burroughs writes that he thought he had a "small habit" and left London quickly without any narcotics because he suspected the U.S. customs would search him very thoroughly on arrival. He claims he went through the most excruciating two months of opiate withdrawal while seeing his son through his trial and sentencing, traveling with Billy to Lexington, Kentucky from Miami to ensure his son entered the hospital he once spent time in as a volunteer admission. Earlier Burroughs revisited St. Louis, Missouri, taking a large advance from ''Playboy'' to write an article about his trip back to St. Louis that was eventually published in ''The Paris Review'', after Burroughs refused to alter the style for ''Playboy'''s publishers. In 1968 Burroughs joined Jean Genet, John Sack, and Terry Southern in covering the 1968 Democratic National Convention for ''Esquire'' magazine. Southern and Burroughs, who had first become acquainted in London, would remain lifelong friends and collaborators. In 1972, Burroughs and Southern unsuccessfully attempted to adapt ''Naked Lunch'' for the screen in conjunction with American game show producer Chuck Barris.

Burroughs supported himself and his addiction by publishing pieces in small literary presses. His avant garde reputation grew internationally as the hippie counterculture discovered his earlier works. He developed a close friendship with Anthony Balch and lived with a young hustler named John Brady who continuously brought home young women despite Burroughs' protestations. In the midst of this personal turmoil, Burroughs managed to complete two works: a novel written in screen play format, ''The Last Words of Dutch Schultz'' (1969); and the traditional prose-format novel ''The Wild Boys'' (1971).

Burroughs was a fan of Harold S. Schroeppel and passionately studied the manuscripts that were made available from the Institute for Advanced Perception. The teachings were known as the Lessons in Advanced Perception. Copies of these manuscripts, dated February 1960, along with four pages of notes exist in the William S. Burroughs archives at Ohio State University.

In the 1960s Burroughs joined and left the Church of Scientology. In talking about the experience, he claimed that the techniques and philosophy of Scientology helped him and that he felt that further study into Scientology would produce great results. He was skeptical of the organization itself, and felt that it fostered an environment that did not accept critical discussion. His subsequent critical writings about the church and his review of ''Inside Scientology'' by Robert Kaufman led to a battle of letters between Burroughs and Scientology supporters in the pages of ''Rolling Stone'' magazine.

Return to U.S.

In 1974, concerned about his friend's well-being, Allen Ginsberg gained for Burroughs a contract to teach creative writing at the City College of New York. Burroughs successfully withdrew from heroin use and moved to New York. He eventually found an apartment, affectionately dubbed "The Bunker," on the Lower East Side of Manhattan at 222 Bowery. The dwelling was a partially converted YMCA gym, complete with lockers and communal showers. The building fell within New York City rent control policies that made it extremely cheap; it was only about four hundred dollars a month until 1981 when the rent control rules changed, doubling the rent overnight. Burroughs added "teacher" to the list of jobs he did not like, as he lasted only a semester as a professor; he found the students uninteresting and without much creative talent. Although he needed income desperately, he turned down a teaching position at the University at Buffalo for $15,000 a semester. "The teaching gig was a lesson in never again. You were giving out all this energy and nothing was coming back." His savior was the newly arrived, twenty-one-year-old book seller and Beat Generation devotee James Grauerholz, who worked for Burroughs part-time as a secretary as well as in a book store. It was Grauerholz who floated the idea of reading tours, something similar to rock and roll touring, or stand-up comedian dates in clubs across the country. Grauerholz had managed several rock bands in Kansas and took the lead in booking Burroughs reading tours that would help support him throughout the next two decades. It raised his public profile, which eventually aided in obtaining new publishing contracts. Through Grauerholz, Burroughs became a monthly columnist for the noted popular culture magazine ''Crawdaddy'', for which he interviewed Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page in 1975. Burroughs decided to relocate back to the United States permanently in 1976. He then began to associate with New York cultural players such as Andy Warhol, John Giorno, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, and Susan Sontag, frequently entertaining them at the Bunker. Throughout early 1977, Burroughs collaborated with Southern and Dennis Hopper on a screen adaptation of ''Junky''. Financed by a reclusive acquaintance of Burroughs, the project lost traction after financial problems and creative disagreements between Hopper and Burroughs.

Organized by Columbia professor Sylvère Lotringer, Giorno, and Grauerholz, the Nova Convention was a multimedia retrospective of Burroughs's work held from November 30 to December 2, 1978 at various locations throughout New York. The event included readings from Southern, Ginsberg, Smith, and Frank Zappa (who filled in at the last minute for Keith Richards, then entangled in a legal problem) in addition to panel discussions with Timothy Leary & Robert Anton Wilson and concerts featuring The B-52's, Suicide, Philip Glass, and Debbie Harry & Chris Stein.

In 1976, Billy Burroughs was eating dinner with his father and Allen Ginsberg in Boulder, Colorado, at Ginsberg’s Buddhist poetry school (Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics) at Chogyam Trungpa's Naropa University when he began to vomit blood. Burroughs senior had not seen his son for over a year and was alarmed at his appearance when Billy arrived at Ginsberg’s apartment. Although Billy had successfully published two short novels in the 1970s, and was deemed by literary critics like Ann Charters as a bona fide "second generation beat writer", his brief marriage to a teenage waitress had disintegrated. Under his constant drinking, there were long periods where Billy was out of contact with any of his family or friends. The diagnosis was liver cirrhosis so complete that the only treatment was a rarely performed liver transplant operation. Fortunately, the University of Colorado Medical Center was one of two places in the nation that performed transplants under the pioneering work of Dr. Thomas Starzl. Billy underwent the procedure and beat the thirty-percent survival odds. His father spent many months in 1976 and 1977 in Colorado, helping Billy through many additional surgeries and complications. Ted Morgan’s biography asserts that their relationship was not spontaneous and lacked real warmth or intimacy. Allen Ginsberg was supportive to both Burroughs and his son throughout the long period of recovery.

In London, he had begun to write what would become the first novel of a trilogy. Between 1981 and 1987 he published ''Cities of the Red Night'' (1981), ''The Place of Dead Roads'' (1983) and ''The Western Lands'' (1987). Grauerholz helped edit ''Cities'' when it was first rejected by Burroughs' long-time editor Dick Seaver at Holt Rinehart, after it was deemed too disjointed. The novel was written as a straight narrative and then chopped up into a more random pattern, leaving the reader to sort through the characters and events. This technique was definitely different from the author's earlier cut-up methods, which were organically accidental from the start. Nevertheless, the novel was reassembled and published, still without a straight linear form, but with fewer breaks in the story. The back-and-forth sway of the read replicated the theme of the trilogy; time-travel adventures where Burroughs's narrators rewrite episodes in history and thus reform mankind. Reviews were mixed for ''Cities''. Novelist and critic Anthony Burgess panned the work in ''Saturday Review'', saying Burroughs was boring readers with repetitive episodes of pederast fantasy and sexual strangulation that lacked any comprehensible world view or theology; other reviewers, like J. G. Ballard, argued that Burroughs was shaping a new literary "mythography".

In 1981, Billy Burroughs died in Florida. He had cut off contact with his father several years before, even publishing an article in ''Esquire'' magazine claiming the author had poisoned his life and revealing that he had been molested by one of his father's friends as a fourteen-year-old while visiting his father in Tangier, something that he had previously kept to himself. The liver transplant had not cured his urge to drink, and Billy suffered from serious health complications years after the operation. He had stopped taking his transplant rejection drugs and was found near the side of a Florida highway by a stranger. He died shortly afterwards. Burroughs was in New York when he heard from Allen Ginsberg of the death.

Burroughs, by 1979, was once again addicted to heroin. The cheap heroin that was easily purchased outside his door on the Lower East Side "made its way" into his veins, coupled with "gifts" from the overzealous if well-intentioned admirers who frequently visited the Bunker. Although Burroughs would have episodes of being free from heroin, from this point until his death he was regularly addicted to the drug. He died in 1997 on a methadone maintenance program. In an introduction to ''Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs'', James Grauerholz (who managed Burroughs's reading tours in the '80s and '90s) mentions that part of his job was to deal with the “underworld” in each city to secure the author’s needed drugs.

Later years in Kansas

Burroughs moved to Lawrence, Kansas, in 1981 and lived the remainder of his life there, at 1927 Learnard Avenue. He once told a Wichita Eagle reporter that he was content to live in Kansas, saying, “The thing I like about Kansas is that it’s not nearly as violent, and it’s a helluva lot cheaper. And I can get out in the country and fish and shoot and whatnot.” In 1984 he signed a seven-book deal with Viking Press after he signed with literary agent Andrew Wylie. This deal included the publication rights to the 1953 unpublished novel ''Queer''. With this money he purchased a small bungalow for $29,000. He was finally inducted into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1983 after several attempts by Allen Ginsberg to get him accepted. He attended the induction ceremony in May 1983. Lawrence Ferlinghetti remarked the induction of Burroughs into the Academy proved Herbert Marcuse's point that capitalistic society had a great ability to incorporate its one-time outsiders.

Burroughs became a counterculture figure and inspired 1970’s proto punk rock band Doctors of Madness and in the 1980s collaborated with performers ranging from Bill Laswell's Material and Laurie Anderson to Throbbing Gristle, Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and Ministry, and in Gus Van Sant's 1989 film ''Drugstore Cowboy,'' playing a character based on a short story he published in ''Exterminator!'', "The "Priest" They Called Him". In 1990, he released the spoken word album ''Dead City Radio,'' with musical back-up from producers Hal Willner and Nelson Lyon, and alternative rock band Sonic Youth. A collaboration with musicians Nick Cave and Tom Waits resulted in a collection of short prose, ''Smack My Crack'', later released as a spoken word album in 1987. He also collaborated with Tom Waits and director Robert Wilson to create ''The Black Rider'', a play which opened at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg in 1990, to critical acclaim, and was later performed all over Europe and the U.S. In 1991, with Burroughs's sanction, director David Cronenberg took on the seemingly impossible task of adapting ''Naked Lunch'' into a full-length feature film. The film opened to critical acclaim.

In June 1991 Burroughs underwent triple bypass surgery.

He became a member of a chaos magic organization, the Illuminates of Thanateros, in 1993, a group whose very existence would not have been possible without his works.

During his later years in Kansas, Burroughs also developed a painting technique whereby he created abstract compositions by placing spray paint cans in front of, and some distance from, blank canvasses, and then shooting at the paint cans with a shotgun. These splattered canvasses were shown in a Chicago gallery in the late 1980s and a New York City gallery in the early 1990s. During this same period Burroughs spent more of his time making art for its own sake including a series of file-folders featuring "automatic calligraphy" inspired by Brion Gysin, which were later dubbed "life files." He originally used the folders to mix pigments before observing that they could be viewed as art in themselves.

Burroughs's final filmed performance was in the music video for "Last Night on Earth" by Irish rock band U2, filmed in Kansas City, Missouri, directed by Richie Smyth and also featuring Sophie Dahl.

Death

Burroughs died in Lawrence, at 6:50 p.m. on August 2, 1997 from complications of a heart attack he had suffered the previous day. He was interred in the family plot in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri, with a marker bearing his full name and the epitaph "American Writer." The grave lies to the right of the white granite obelisk of William Seward Burroughs I (1857–1898).

After his death

Since 1997, several posthumous collections of Burroughs's work have been published. A few months after his death, a collection of writings spanning his entire career, ''Word Virus'', was published (according to the book's introduction, Burroughs himself approved its contents prior to his death). Aside from numerous previously released pieces, ''Word Virus'' also included one of the few surviving fragments of ''And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks'', an unpublished novel by Burroughs and Kerouac. A collection of journal entries written during the final months of Burroughs's life was published as the book ''Last Words'' in 2000. Publication of a memoir by Burroughs entitled ''Evil River'' by Viking Press has been delayed several times; after initially being announced for a 2005 release, Web retailers such as Amazon.com indicated a 2007 release, complete with an ISBN number (ISBN 0670813516), but no such release has, to date, occurred. In December 2007, Ohio State University Press released ''Everything Lost: The Latin American Journals of William S. Burroughs''. Edited by Oliver Harris, the book contains transcriptions of journal entries made by Burroughs during the time of composing ''Queer'' and ''The Yage Letters''. In addition, special editions of ''The Yage Letters'', ''Naked Lunch'' and ''Junkie/Junky'' have been published in recent years, all containing additional material and essays on the works.

The complete Kerouac/Burroughs manuscript ''And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks'' was published for the first time in November 2008.

In September 2010, Telos Publishing, a UK publisher, is scheduled to release the novel ''Rules of Duel'', a previously unpublished late-60s collaboration between Burroughs and Graham Masterton.

Literary style and periods

Burroughs's major works can be divided into four different periods. The dates refer to the time of writing, not publication, which in some cases was not until decades later:

Early work (early 1950s): ''Junkie'', ''Queer'' and ''The Yage Letters'' are relatively straightforward linear narratives, written in and about Burroughs's time in Mexico City and South America.

The cut-up period (mid 1950s to mid 1960s): ''Naked Lunch'' is a fragmentary collection of "routines" from ''The Word Hoard'' – manuscripts written in Tangier, Paris, London, as well as of some other texts written in South America such as "The Composite City", blending into the cut-up and fold-in fiction also heavily drawn from ''The Word Hoard'': ''The Soft Machine'', ''Nova Express'', ''The Ticket That Exploded'', also referred to as "The Nova Trilogy" or "the Nova Epic", self-described by Burroughs as an attempt to create "a mythology for the space age". ''Interzone'' also derives from this period.

Experiment and subversion (mid 1960s to mid 1970s): This period saw Burroughs continue experimental writing with increased political content and branching into multimedia such as film and sound recording. The only major novel written in this period was ''The Wild Boys'', but he also wrote dozens of published articles, short stories, scrap books and other works, several in collaboration with Brion Gyson. The major anthologies representing work from this period are ''The Burroughs File'', ''The Adding Machine'' and ''Exterminator!''.

The ''Red Night'' trilogy (mid 1970s to mid 1980s): The books ''Cities of the Red Night'', ''The Place of Dead Roads'' and ''The Western Lands'' came from Burroughs in a final, mature stage, creating a complete mythology.

Burroughs also produced numerous essays and a large body of autobiographical material, including a book with a detailed account of his own dreams (''My Education: A Book of Dreams'').

Reaction to critics and view on criticism

Several literary critics treated Burroughs's work harshly. For example Anatole Broyard and Philip Toynbee wrote devastating reviews of some of his most important books. In a short essay entitled "A Review of the Reviewers", Burroughs answers his critics in this way:

Burroughs clearly indicates here that he prefers to be evaluated against such criteria over being reviewed based on the reviewer's personal reactions to a certain book. Always a contradictory figure, Burroughs nevertheless criticized Anatole Broyard for reading authorial intentionality into his works where there is none, which sets him at odds both with New Criticism and the old school as represented by Mathew Arnold.

Legacy

Burroughs is often called one of the greatest and most influential writers of the twentieth century, most notably by Norman Mailer whose quote on Burroughs, "The only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius," appears on many Burroughs publications. Others consider his concepts and attitude more influential than his prose. Prominent admirers of Burroughs's work have included British critic and biographer Peter Ackroyd, the rock critic Lester Bangs and the authors J. G. Ballard, Angela Carter, Jean Genet, William Gibson, Alan Moore, and Ken Kesey.

Burroughs continues to be named as an influence by contemporary writers of fiction. Both the New Wave and, especially, the cyberpunk schools of science fiction are indebted to him. Admirers from the late 1970s—early 1980s milieu of this subgenre include William Gibson and John Shirley, to name only two. First published in 1982, the British slipstream fiction magazine ''Interzone'' (which later evolved into a more traditional science fiction magazine) paid tribute to him with its choice of name. He is also cited as a major influence by musicians Roger Waters, Patti Smith, Genesis P-Orridge, Ian Curtis, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Tom Waits and Kurt Cobain.

Drugs, homosexuality and death, common among Burroughs's themes, have been taken up by Dennis Cooper, of whom Burroughs said, "Dennis Cooper, God help him, is a born writer." Cooper, in return, wrote, in his essay 'King Junk', "along with Jean Genet, John Rechy, and Ginsberg, [Burroughs] helped make homosexuality seem cool and highbrow, providing gay liberation with a delicious edge." Splatterpunk writer Poppy Z. Brite has frequently referenced this aspect of Burroughs's work. Burroughs's writing continues to be referenced years after his death; for example, a November 2004 episode of the TV series ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' included an evil character named Dr. Benway (named for an amoral physician who appears in a number of Burroughs's works.) This is an echo of the hospital scene in the movie ''Repo Man,'' made during Burroughs's lifetime, in which both Dr. Benway and Mr. Lee (a Burroughs pen name) are paged.

Burroughs was cited by Robert Anton Wilson as the first person to notice the "23 Enigma": }}

Appearances in media

In music

Burroughs appears on the cover of The Beatles' eighth studio album, ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''.

Burroughs participated on numerous album releases by Giorno Poetry Systems, including ''The Nova Convention'' (featuring Frank Zappa, John Cage, and Philip Glass) and ''You're the Guy I Want to Share My Money With'' (with John Giorno and Laurie Anderson). He is featured in a spoken word piece entitled "Sharkey's Night" on Laurie Anderson's album ''Mister Heartbreak''. In addition, Burroughs provided vocal samples for the soundtrack of Anderson's 1986 concert film, ''Home of the Brave'', and made a cameo appearance in it. He also recites the lyrics of R.E.M.'s "Star Me Kitten" for a special version of the song on the ''Songs in the Key of X: Music from and Inspired by the X-Files'' soundtrack.

In 1990, Island Records released ''Dead City Radio'', a collection of readings set to a broad range of musical compositions. It was produced by Hal Willner and Nelson Lyon, with musical accompaniment from John Cale, Donald Fagen, Lenny Pickett, Chris Stein, Sonic Youth, and others. The remastered edition of Sonic Youth's album ''Goo'' includes a longer version of "Dr. Benway's House," which had appeared, in shorter form, on ''Dead City Radio''.

In 1992 he recorded "Quick Fix" with Ministry, which appeared on their single for "Just One Fix." The single featured cover art by Burroughs and a remix of the song dubbed the "W.S.B. mix." Burroughs also made an appearance in the video for "Just One Fix." The same year he also recorded the EP ''The "Priest" They Called Him''; Burroughs reads the short story of the same name, while Kurt Cobain creates layers of guitar feedback and distortion. Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic is featured on the cover as the titular "Priest." In 1992 Burroughs worked with The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy on ''Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales'', with the duo providing musical background and accompaniment to Burroughs's spoken readings from several of his books.

Burroughs appears near the end of U2's music video "Last Night on Earth", pushing a shopping cart with a large spotlight positioned inside it. The video ends with a close up of his eyes.

In 2000, Spring Heel Jack released the album ''Oddities'', on which appears the band's remix of Material's ''Road to the Western Lands,'' featuring Burroughs, which had originally appeared on the remix album ''Seven Souls''.

Band names

Numerous bands have found their names in Burroughs's work. The most widely known of these is Steely Dan, a group named after a dildo in ''Naked Lunch''. Also from ''Naked Lunch'' came the names The Mugwumps and The Insect Trust. Named after the novel, Nova Express was an Australian R&B; band in the 60s. British band Soft Machine took its moniker from the Burroughs novel of the same name, as did the protopunk band Dead Fingers Talk, from Hull, England; their only album was titled ''Storm the Reality Studios'', after a quote from ''Nova Express''. Alt-country band Clem Snide is named for a Burroughs character. Thin White Rope took their name for Burroughs's euphemism for ejaculation. The American extreme metal band Success Will Write Apocalypse Across the Sky took their name from the 1989 text "Apocalypse", in which Burroughs describes "art and creative expression taking a literal and physical form."

In film and television

Burroughs played Opium Jones in the 1966 Conrad Rooks cult film ''Chappaqua'', which also featured cameo roles by Allen Ginsberg, Moondog, and others. In 1968, an abbreviated—77 minutes as opposed to the original's 104 minutes—version of Benjamin Christensen's 1922 film ''Häxan'' was released, subtitled ''Witchcraft Through The Ages''. This version, produced by Anthony Balch, featured an eclectic jazz score by Daniel Humair and narration by Burroughs. He also appeared alongside Brion Gysin in a number of short films in the 1960s directed by Balch. Jack Sargeant's book ''Naked Lens: Beat Cinema'' details Burroughs film work at length, covering his collaborations with Balch and Burroughs' theories of film.

Burroughs narrated part of the 1980 documentary ''Shamans of the Blind Country'' by anthropologist and filmmaker Michael Oppitz. He gave a reading on ''Saturday Night Live'' on November 7, 1981, in an episode hosted by Lauren Hutton.

Burroughs subsequently made cameo appearances in a number of other films and videos, such as David Blair's ''Wax: or the Discovery of Television among the Bees'', in which he plays a beekeeper, in an elliptic story about the first Gulf War, and ''Decoder'' by Klaus Maeck. He played an aging junkie priest in Gus Van Sant's 1989 film ''Drugstore Cowboy''. He also appears briefly at the beginning of Van Sant's ''Even Cowgirls Get the Blues'' (based on the Tom Robbins novel), in which he is seen crossing a city street; as the noise of the city rises around him he pauses in the middle of the intersection and speaks the single word "ominous". Van Sant's short film "Thanksgiving Prayer" features Burroughs reading the poem "Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1986," from ''Tornado Alley'', intercut with a collage of black and white images.

A documentary titled ''Burroughs'', directed by Howard Brookner, was released in 1984. It included footage of Burroughs and many of his friends and colleagues.

Near the end of his life, recordings of Burroughs reading his short stories "A Junky's Christmas" and "Ah Pook is Here" were used on the soundtracks of two highly acclaimed animated films.

Filmmakers Lars Movin and Steen Moller Rasmussen used footage of Burroughs taken during a 1983 tour of Scandinavia in the documentary ''Words of Advice: William S. Burroughs on the Road''. A 2010 documentary, ''William S. Burroughs: A Man Within'', was made for Independent Lens on PBS.

As a fictional character

Burroughs was fictionalized in Jack Kerouac's autobiographical novel ''On the Road'' as "Old Bull Lee." He also makes an appearance in J. G. Ballard's semi-autobiographical 1991 novel ''The Kindness of Women''. In the 2004 novel ''Move Under Ground'', Burroughs, Kerouac, and Neal Cassady team up to defeat Cthulhu.

Burroughs appears in the first part of ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson during the 1968 Democratic Convention riots and is described as a person devoid of anger, passion, indignation, hope, or any other recognizable human emotion. He is presented as a polar opposite of Allen Ginsberg, as Ginsberg believed in everything and Burroughs believed in nothing. Wilson would recount in his ''Cosmic Trigger II: Down to Earth'' having interviewed both Burroughs and Ginsberg for ''Playboy'' the day the riots began as well as his experiences with Shea during the riots, providing some detail on the creation of the fictional sequence.

Bibliography

Notes

References

Ted Morgan: ''Literary Outlaw: The Life and Times of William S.Burroughs.'' New York: Avon, 1988. ISBN 0-805-00901-9

James Grauerholz, Ira Silverberg, Ann Douglas (eds.): ''Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader.'' Grove Press, 2000. 576 pages. ISBN 080213694X, 9780802136947

Further reading

Charters, Ann (ed.). ''The Portable Beat Reader''. Penguin Books, New York 1992. ISBN 0-670-83885-3 (hc); ISBN 0-14-015102-8 (pbk).

Gilmore, John. ''Laid Bare: A Memoir of Wrecked Lives and the Hollywood Death Trip.'' Searching for Rimbaud. Amok Books, 1997.

Harris, Oliver. ''William S. Burroughs and the Secret of Fascination''. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, IL 2003.

Miles, Barry. ''William Burroughs: El Hombre Invisible, A Portrait''. Hyperion, New York 1992.

Sargeant, Jack. "Naked Lens: Beat Cinema" Soft Skull, New York, 2009 (third edition).

Schneiderman, Davis and Philip Walsh. ''Retaking the Universe: William S. Burroughs in the Age of Globalization''. Pluto Press, LOndon 2004.

Stevens, Michael. ''The Road to Interzone: Reading William S. Burroughs Reading''. suicide press, Archer City, Texas 2009.

External links

William S. Burroughs Papers at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Columbia University

RealityStudio fan site with texts, community, scholarship, criticism

William S. Burroughs Internet Database at Southeast Missouri State University

International festivities for 50th anniversary of ''Naked Lunch''

Burroughs multimedia directory

A gallery of Burroughs book cover designs

Artist Malcolm McNeill: On Beat Writer William Burroughs, Interview by George Laughead, August 2007

Doom Patrols: 10. WILLIAM BURROUGHS by Steven Shaviro

William Burroughs and Tom Waits

Interview excerpt from RE/Search

Shooting Joan Burroughs by George Laughead

Allen Ginsberg & William S. Burroughs, Last Public Appearance November 2, 1996 Lawrence, KS

William S. Burroughs' ''Naked Lunch'': American Literature from Morocco

European Beat Studies Network

''William S. Burroughs: A Man Within'' site for Independent Lens on PBS

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{{infobox musical artist | name	Loreena McKennitt | image LM-DG-1.jpg | background solo_singer | birth_name Loreena Isabel Irene McKennitt | alias | Born February 17, 1957Morden, Manitoba, Canada | origin | instrument Voice, Piano, Harp, Accordion | genre Celtic, World, New Age | occupation Musician, Songwriter, Producer | years_active 1985–present | label Quinlan RoadWarner Bros. RecordsVerve Forecast/Universal Records }}

Loreena Isabel Irene McKennitt, CM, OM, (born February 17, 1957) is a Canadian singer, composer, harpist, accordionist and pianist who writes, records and performs world music with Celtic and Middle Eastern themes. McKennitt is known for her refined, clear soprano vocals. She has sold more than 14 million records worldwide.

Early life

McKennitt was born in Morden, Manitoba of Irish and Scottish descent to parents Jack (a livestock dealer) and Irene McKennitt (a nurse). She moved to Stratford, Ontario in 1981, where she still resides.

When Loreena was young she wanted to become a veterinarian but she found that music chose her rather than she it. Developing a passion for Celtic music, she learned to play the Celtic harp and began busking at various places, including St. Lawrence Market in Toronto in order to earn money to record her first album.

Career

McKennitt's first album, ''Elemental'', was released in 1985, followed by ''To Drive the Cold Winter Away'' (1987), ''Parallel Dreams'' (1989), ''The Visit'' (1991), ''The Mask and Mirror'' (1994), ''A Winter Garden'' (1995), ''The Book of Secrets'' (1997), ''An Ancient Muse'' (2006), ''A Midwinter Night’s Dream'' (2008), and ''The Wind That Shakes The Barley'' (2010). All of her work is released under her own label, Quinlan Road.

In 1990, McKennitt provided the music for the National Film Board of Canada documentary, "The Burning Times" a feminist revisionist account of the Early Modern European witchcraft trials. The main theme would later be rerecorded by her and her band and called "Tango for Evora," a track which appears on her album, The Visit.

In 1993, she toured Europe supporting Mike Oldfield. In 1995, her version of the traditional Irish song "Bonny Portmore" was featured in the ''Highlander'' series. McKennitt's single "The Mummers' Dance" received airplay in North American markets during the spring of 1997, and was used as the theme song for the short-lived TV series, ''Legacy''.

Her music appeared in the movies ''The Santa Clause'', ''Soldier'', ''Jade'', ''Holy Man'', ''The Mists of Avalon'' and ''Tinkerbell''; and in the television series ''Roar'', ''Due South'', ''Ever After'', and ''Full Circle (Women and Spirituality)''.

Personal life

In 1998, McKennitt's fiancé Ronald Rees, his brother Richard (not the British actor) and their close friend Gregory Cook drowned during a boating accident on Georgian Bay. She was deeply affected by the event and subsequently founded the ''Cook-Rees Memorial Fund'' for Water Search and Safety in the same year.

At the time of the incident, she was working on an live album of two performances called ''Live in Paris and Toronto''. The proceeds from this album were donated to the newly created memorial fund, totaling some three million dollars. After the release of the live album, McKennitt decided to substantially reduce the number of her public performances and did not release any new recordings until the studio album ''An Ancient Muse'' in 2006.

Honors

Juno Award, Best Roots/Traditional Album 1992, for ''The Visit''.

Juno Award, Best Roots/Traditional Album 1994, for ''The Mask and Mirror''.

Billboard Music Award for International Achievement, 1997.

Headline performer for HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH Prince Philip at The Golden Jubilee Celebrations, Province of Manitoba, 2002.

Honorary Doctor of Letters, Wilfrid Laurier University, 2002.

Member of the Order of Manitoba, July 2003.

Member of the Order of Canada, July 2004.

Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Manitoba, June 2005

Canadian Ambassador, Hans Christian Andersen Bicentennary, June 2005

Honorary Doctor of Laws, Queen's University, October 2005

Investiture as Honorary Colonel, 435 Transport and Rescue Squadron, Canadian Air Force, December 2006

Nominated for a Grammy award, Best Contemporary World Music Album, in 2007

Western Canadian Music Awards Lifetime Achievement Award, September 2009

Performed at Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, Opening Ceremonies, February 12, 2010

Honorary Bachelor of Applied Business, George Brown College, June 2010

Genre and work

McKennitt's music has generally been classified as World / Celtic music even though it contains aspects and characteristics of music from around the globe and is sometimes classified as Folk music in record stores.

Before McKennitt composes any music, she engages in considerable research on a specific subject which then forms the general concept of the album. Before creating ''Elemental'' and ''Parallel Dreams'', she traveled to Ireland for inspiration from the country's history, folklore, geography and culture. The album ''The Mask and Mirror'' was preceded by research in Spain where she engaged in studying Galicia, a Celtic section of Spain, along with its abundant Arabic roots. The result was an album that included elements of Celtic and Arabic music. According to the jacket notes, her album ''An Ancient Muse'' was inspired by travels among and reading about the various cultures along the Silk Road.

McKennitt is compared to Enya, but McKennitt's music is more grounded in traditional and classical invocations, using literary works as sources of lyrics and springboards for interpretation such as "The Lady of Shalott" by Lord Tennyson, "Prospero's Speech" (the final soliloquy in William Shakespeare's ''The Tempest''), "Snow" by Archibald Lampman, "Dark Night of the Soul" by St. John of the Cross, Dante's Prayer, William Blake's "Lullaby", Yeats' "The Stolen Child", "It was an English Ladye Bright" by Sir Walter Scott and "The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes.

Court case

In 2005, McKennitt was involved in an acrimonious court case in England when her former friend and employee, Niema Ash, published a book which contained intimate details of their friendship. McKennitt argued that much of the book contained confidential personal information which Ash had no right to publish. The English courts found that there had indeed been a breach of confidence and a misuse of McKennitt's private information, and the case is likely to set important precedents in English law on the privacy of celebrities. The House of Lords affirmed the lower court's decisions in 2007.

2006 and later

In September 2006, McKennitt performed live at the Alhambra. The performance premiered on PBS and in August 2007 was released on a three-disc DVD/CD set titled ''Nights from the Alhambra.''

In 2008, McKennitt wrote and composed a song she titled "To The Fairies They Draw Near" as the theme song for Disney's direct-to-video animated film ''Tinker Bell.'' She also provided the narration for the film.

In early 2008, she returned to Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios to record ''A Midwinter Night’s Dream,'' an extended version of her 1995 mini-album ''A Winter Garden: Five Songs for the Season.'' The album was released on October 28, 2008.

Since the release of ''An Ancient Muse,'' Loreena has toured consistently, with a European and North American tour in the spring of 2007, an extensive cross Canada and United States tour in the fall of 2007, a summer tour of Europe in 2008 and a Mediterranean tour in the summer of 2009 with stops in Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Lebanon, Hungary and Italy.

On September 17, 2009, McKennitt announced that she planned to release a two-disc album titled "A Mediterranean Odyssey" in the fall of 2009. The first CD, "From Istanbul to Athens," consisted of ten new live recordings made during McKennitt’s 2009 Mediterranean Tour, including songs she had never before recorded in concert. The second CD, "The Olive and the Cedar," had a Mediterranean theme which McKennitt herself curated. It contained previously released studio recordings created between the years of 1994 and 2006.

November 16, 2010 saw the US release (November 12 for Europe) of McKennitt's latest studio album, "The Wind That Shakes the Barley." Recorded at the Sharon Temple, Ontario, it consists of nine traditional Celtic songs. "Every once and again there is a pull to return to one's own roots or beginnings, with the perspective of time and experience, to feel the familiar things you once loved and love still," says Loreena.

Documentaries

Late in the 1990s, McKennitt created ''No Journey's End,'' a half-hour documentary, for American television. In it, she discussed the influences behind her music. ''No Journey's End'' contained excerpts from several songs from the albums ''Parallel Dreams,'' ''The Visit,'' and ''The Mask and Mirror.'' It also shows live performances of the songs "The Lady of Shalott," "Santiago," and "The Dark Night of the Soul." It was later released on DVD and VHS, the former also containing music videos for "The Mummers' Dance" and "The Bonny Swans." A bonus copy of the DVD was included with the 2004 remastered versions of McKennitt's CDs.

In 2008, Loreena released ''A Moveable Musical Feast,'' based on her 2007 ''An Ancient Muse'' tour. The DVD included interviews with Loreena, her band, crew, fans and professional colleagues from the Canadian music industry.

Discography

Studio albums

Year	Album details	Peak chart positions			! rowspan="2"
		! style="width:30px;"	! style="width:30px;"	! style="width:30px;"
1985	style="text-align:left;"	* Release date: 1985	* Label: Quinlan Road	—	—	—
1987		* Release date: 1987	* Label: Quinlan Road	—	—	—
1989		* Release date: 1989	* Label: Quinlan Road	—	—	—
1991	style="text-align:left;"	* Release date: 1991	Warner Bros. Records>Warner Bros./Quinlan Road	28	—	—		Associação Brasileira dos Produtores de Discos>BR: Gold	Canadian Recording Industry Association>CAN: 4× Platinum	Recording Industry Association of America>US: Gold
1994		* Release date: 1994	* Label: Quinlan Road	4	18	143		* ARG: Gold	* CAN: 3× Platinum	* US: Gold
1997		* Release date: September 30, 1997	* Label: Warner Bros./Quinlan Road	3	7	17		* ARG: Gold	* CAN: 4× Platinum	* US: 2× Platinum	* GER: Gold
2006		* Release date: November 21, 2006	* Label: MRA/Quinlan Road	9	15	83		* CAN: Platinum
2008		* Release date: October 28, 2008	* Label: Universal/Quinlan Road	12	27	140
2010	style="text-align:left;"	* Release date: November 12, 2010	* Label: Quinlan Road	13	28	141

Live Albums

Year	Album details	Peak chart positions			! rowspan="2"
		! style="width:30px;"	! style="width:30px;"	! style="width:30px;"
1995		* Release date: 1995	* Label: Quinlan Road	—	—	—
1999		* Release date: 1999	* Label: Quinlan Road	—	65	—
2007		* Release date: August 21, 2007	Verve Records>Verve/Quinlan Road	—	11	190		* GER: Platinum
2009		* Release date: October 20, 2009	* Label: Quinlan Road	11	—	—

Compilations

Year	Album details	Peak chart positions			! rowspan="2"
		! style="width:30px;"	! style="width:30px;"	! style="width:30px;"
1997		* Release date: 1997	* Label: Quinlan Road

EPs

Year	Album details	Peak chart positions	! rowspan="2"
		! style="width:30px;"
1995		* Release date: November 1995	* Label: Quinlan Road	44		* CAN: Gold

Boxed sets

''The Journey Begins'' (2008)

Singles

rowspan="2"	Year	Single	Peak chart positions				Album
! style="width:30px;"	! style="width:30px;"		! style="width:30px;"	! style="width:30px;"
rowspan="3"	1991		—	—	—	—
	—	—	—	—
	—	—	—	—
	1993		—	—	—	—
		75	—	—	—
	—	—	—	—
	—	—	—	—
		—	—	—	—
	—	—	—	—
	1997	style="text-align:left;"	"The Mummers' Dance"	10	18	23	14
1998		—	—	—	—
2006		—	—	—	—
2007		—	—	—	—
		—	—	—	—
	—	—	—	—
	2009		—	—	—	—

Videos

''H.M.S. Pinafore'' Live performance recorded during the 1981 Stratford Festival in Stratford Ontario, Canada, starring Michael Burgess, Katherine Terrell, Eric Donkin, Kenneth Pearl, Jim White, et al.; Loreena McKennitt performed in the chorus. (CBC VHS 1986)

''The Mummers' Dance'' (1997)

''The Bonny Swans''

''Nights from the Alhambra'' (2007, Live concert in Spain premiered on ''PBS'') ''A Moveable Musical Feast'' (2008, A tour documentary from Loreena's 2007 North American Tour)

Other

''No Journey’s End'' (half-hour profile, aired on PBS; DVD)

''Heaven on Earth'' (TV Movie 1987 - played "Lady Traveler")

''Highlander III'' (Soundtrack contribution)

''The Santa Clause'' (Soundtrack contribution)

''Léolo'' (Soundtrack contribution)

''Una casa con vista al mar'' (Soundtrack contribution)

''The Mists Of Avalon'' (Soundtrack use)

''The Burning Times'' (Soundtrack contribution)

''Due South'' (Soundtrack use)

''Northern Exposure'' (Soundtrack use)

''Tinker Bell'' (Direct to DVD movie, 2008 - Narrator)

''Soldier'' (Soundtrack use)

References

External links

Quinlan Road (official website of Loreena McKennitt)

Loreena McKennitt interview from the echoes public radio show

Category:Canadian female singers Category:Canadian folk musicians Category:Celtic fusion musicians Category:Musicians from Manitoba Category:Canadian harpists Category:Canadian keyboardists Category:Canadian pianists Category:Canadian singer-songwriters Category:Canadian sopranos Category:Fast Folk artists Category:Warner Bros. Records artists Category:Canadian people of Irish descent Category:Canadian people of Scottish descent Category:People from Morden, Manitoba Category:People from Stratford, Ontario Category:Members of the Order of Canada Category:Members of the Order of Manitoba Category:1957 births Category:Living people

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