Eminent Lives is a series of brief biographies by distinguished authors on canonical figures. The editor has shown great perspicacity in choosing Bill Bryson to write this one. Bill Bryson is the author of a number of delightful books like A Short History of Nearly Everything and A Walk in the Woods. He is just the person to take on yet another treatment of William Shakespeare.

As he says, "The amount of Shakespearean ink, grossly measured, is almost ludicrous." For example, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., contains about seven thousand works on Shakespeare. "This book was written not so much because the world needs another book on Shakespeare as because this series does."

In Bryson's inimitable style, he discusses how little we know about the life of this literary icon, including his appearance. Three portraits exist, which may or may not really be of William Shakespeare. "There is nothing -- not a scrap, not a note -- that gives any insights into Shakespeare's feelings or beliefs as a private person." Such lack of information is typical for all figures from the period. However, as Shakespeare's reputation and fame grew, scholars searched for facts and possibilities.

They turned to his works for help. They counted every word, every mark of punctuation. Even this research runs into difficulties as they try to draw conclusions about the man from what he wrote. Plays were not usually published, and it was only after his death that friends and colleagues created the "First Folio" containing some of his dramas.

So much that was new arose in the Elizabethan literary period. Playwrights introduced "comic relief" into tragedies. The division of plays into acts and scenes was not yet settled. "A certain messy exuberance marked much" of Shakespeare's work. A few sentences and passages seem to make no sense. He often got geography wrong and anachronisms appear frequently. However, he coined many new words that we still use, as well as phrases that entered the common language: "vanish into thin air, tower of strength, bag and baggage," and many more.

Records reveal the dates of Shakespeare's baptism, marriage, and death. His will still resides in the British National Archives. His estate was respectable, though not a great one. He famously left his wife his "second-best bed." Such a legacy might not be as insulting as it sounds. It has been discussed at length, just like everything else about Shakespeare.

Because the plays attributed to William Shakespeare cover such a broad array of information and such extensive psychological insights, it seems to have been difficult for people to believe that an actor from a small town could have written them. About five thousand books have been published claiming other authors.

Bryson finds this skepticism ridiculous. Someone has even suggested that Queen Elizabeth I herself was "Shakespeare." Francis Bacon is among the nominees. He was first put forward by Delia Bacon (not a descendant), a bright "but not terribly stable" woman, in the 1840s. Some of the names of the challengers have been unfortunate -- J Thomas Looney, Sherwood E. Silliman, George M. Battey. The reader can see how Bryson feels about the question, if it is one.

"When we reflect upon the works of William Shakespeare, it is of course, an amazement to consider that one man could have produced such a sumptuous, wise, varied, thrilling, ever-delighting body of work, but that is of course the hallmark of genius."

Shakespeare: The World As Stage is available at the Mary Willis Library.