"The life of William Shakespeare has, for over three hundred years, been the subject of intense speculation. The starting-point for any attempt to piece together a reliable picture of the man must be a close examination of those rare documents written during Shakespeare's lifetime that mention him by name. Just over seventy-five such documents survive and, of these, thirty-one are to be found in Shakespeare's native town of Stratford, in the care of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. For the first time this book, written by the Trust's Senior Archivist, offers a thorough and detailed analysis of these documents describing why and how they were written and what they tell us about the times in which Shakespeare lived." Back Cover.