Michael Egan (born 1941) is an American literary scholar and author. Egan was Scholar in Residence at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

, Hawai’i and Professor of English and

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at TransPacific Hawaii College, Honolulu (which closed at the end of 2008). He earned his Ph.D at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, where he edited The Cambridge Review and was first Contributing

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for the

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''Thomas of Woodstock'' attribution

Egan edited a

variorum A variorum, short for , is a work that collates all known variants of a text. It is a work of textual criticism, whereby all variations and emendations are set side by side so that a reader can track how textual decisions have been made in the pre ...

edition of ''The First Part of the Tragedy of King Richard the Second: A Newly Authenticated Play'' by

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

, with an introduction, notes and critical commentary (

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, 2006). which was awarded the 2006

Adèle Mellen Prize The Edwin Mellen Press, sometimes stylised as Mellen Press, is an academic publisher. It was founded in 1972 by theology professor Herbert W. Richardson. It has been involved in a number of notable legal and academic controversies, sometimes b ...

. Egan's thesis that Shakespeare wrote the play, also known as ''

Thomas of Woodstock Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester (7 January 13558 or 9 September 1397) was the fifth surviving son and youngest child of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. Early life Thomas was born on 7 January 1355 at Woodstock Pal ...

'', was examined by three independent Shakespeare scholars, who unanimously agreed that "In sum, the differences, stylistic and otherwise, between ''Woodstock'' and Shakespeare's undoubted plays, even his early ones, so vastly outweigh the perceived similarities as to compel the conclusion that Shakespeare did not write ''Woodstock''."Weiss, Lawrence. ''Thomas of Woodstock''
"Egan vs. Elliott and Valenza"
Online summary report. 29 Aug. 2011. SHAKSPER: The Global Electronic Shakespeare Conference. P. 39.

Publications

Egan is the author of more than 80 professional articles and ten books, including: * ''Henrik Ibsen: The Critical Heritage'' (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972, Taylor & Francis, 2000) * ''Extreme Situations: Literature and Crisis from the Great War to the Atom Bomb'' (Macmillan, 1979) ith David Craig* ''Huckleberry Finn: Race, Class and Society'' (Sussex University Press, 1977) * ''Henry James: The Ibsen Years'' (Vision Press, 1972)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Egan, Michael Brigham Young University–Hawaii faculty Living people American non-fiction writers 1941 births Shakespearean scholars Shakespeare authorship question American academics of English literature