Stephen Orgel is Professor of English at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. Best known as a

scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

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 natio ...

, Orgel writes primarily about the

political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

and

historical History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

context of

Renaissance literature Renaissance literature refers to European literature which was influenced by the intellectual and cultural tendencies associated with the Renaissance. The literature of the Renaissance was written within the general movement of the Renaissance, ...

. Orgel received his B.A. from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in 1954 and his Ph.D. from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1959. He has taught at Stanford since 1985. He is a noted book collector.

Selected critical works

*''The Illusion of Power.'' U California P, 1975. *''Impersonations:The Performance of Gender in Shakespeare's England.'' Cambridge, 1996. *''The Authentic Shakespeare.'' Routledge, 2002. *''Imagining Shakespeare.'' Palgrave, 2003. *''John Milton: The Major Works''. Edited by Orgel and Jonathan Goldberg. Oxford, 1991.

References

American literary critics Shakespearean scholars Columbia College (New York) alumni Harvard University alumni Stanford University Department of English faculty American academics of English literature Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-English-academic-bio-stub