Samuel Schoenbaum (March 6, 1927 - March 27, 1996) was a leading 20th-century American

Shakespearean 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 ...

biographer and scholar.

Biography

Born in New York, Schoenbaum taught at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

from 1953 to 1975, serving for the last four years of this period as the Frank Bliss Snyder Professor of English Literature. He later taught at the

City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

(1975–76). He was the Distinguished Professor of Renaissance Studies at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

(1976–93), director of UMD's Center for Renaissance and Baroque Studies (1981–96), president of the Shakespeare Association of America, vice president of the International Shakespeare Association, and editor of the journal Renaissance Drama. At one point in his career he was a trustee of the

Folger Shakespeare Library The Folger Shakespeare Library is an independent research library on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., United States. It has the world's largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, and is a primary repository for rare materia ...

and was an American consultant for the Oxford University Shakespeare Project. He managed to uncover previously unrecorded manuscripts and biographical records pertaining not only to Shakespeare but also to other writers, including

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( ; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets with his friend William Wordsworth ...

and

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poetry, Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romanticism, Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Balla ...

. Schoenbaum married the former Marilyn Turk in 1946. In his later years he suffered from

multiple sclerosis Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease resulting in damage to myelinthe insulating covers of nerve cellsin the brain and spinal cord. As a demyelinating disease, MS disrupts the nervous system's ability to Action potential, transmit ...

. He died of prostate cancer in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

in 1996, aged 69.

Works

* ''Jacobean Danse Macabre: A Consideration of "The Revengers Tragedy"'' (1949) * ''Middleton's Tragedies'' (1955) * ''Internal Evidence and Elizabethan Dramatic Authorship'' (1966) * ''Essays Principally on Dramatic Theory and Form'' (1966) * ''Shakespeare's Lives'' (1970; 2nd ed., 1991) * ''Shakespeare: A Documentary Life'' (1974) * ''Shakespeare, the Globe & the world'' (1979) * ''William Shakespeare, Records and Images'' (1981) * ''Shakespeare and Others'' (1985) * ''William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life'' (1987) * ''Shakespeare: His Life, His English, His Theater'' (1990)

References

External links

Obituary

Stanley Wells Sir Stanley William Wells, (born 21 May 1930) is an English Shakespearean scholar, writer, professor and editor who has been honorary president of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, professor emeritus at Birmingham University, and author of many ...

(1996),

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

, London Shakespearean scholars Deaths from cancer in Washington, D.C. 1927 births 1996 deaths 20th-century American poets University of Maryland, College Park faculty {{US-academic-bio-stub