James Warren continues to examine impact of
“Shakespeare” Identified
SI-100 Committee member James Warren continues to lead the preliminary work to develop and organize materials for a book on the impact that“Shakespeare” Identified has had on Shakespeare studies and the wider literary world over the past 100 years. A tentative title is John Thomas Looney and “Shakespeare” Identified: The 100th anniversary of the book that is revolutionizing Shakespeare Studies. The focus will be on how “Shakespeare” Identified made its way in the world and how it changed and is changing the way we look at Shakespeare and his works.
The book will include sections on Looney and how he came to write this book, plus personal descriptions of how his book affected specific individuals. For example, Esther Singleton described the deep effect it had on her, and Sigmund Freud wrote about his reaction to the book. Warren is looking for other reactions to include. In addition, the book will examine how Stratfordians have responded to“Shakespeare Identified.” This might be a short chapter, since to our knowledge no one in academia has made a serious effort to refute the ideas in “Shakespeare” Identified.
Appendices will include the full texts of all of the articles Looney published on the authorship question (10 so far), all of his letters that can be located (15 so far, see below), and full texts of many reviews of and articles about Looney’s books and ideas. About a dozen reviews appeared in 1920 and 1921, soon after the book was published, but there probably are more, and James will try to track them down in the next two years.
List of known letters of J. T. Looney
Fifteen letters to or from J. Thomas Looney have been found. If you know about or have located additional letters, please contact James Warren at jwarren1000@yahoo.com
- Letter to Gillett Burgess (4 July 1920)
- Letter to George G. Greenwood (6 April 1921)
- Letter to George G. Greenwood (5 March 1922)
- Letter to George G. Greenwood (14 March 1922)
- Letter to Eva Turner Clark (26 June 1926)
- Letter to Gillett Burgess (22 June 1927)
- Letter to Eva Turner Clark (10 August 1928)
- Letter to the editor of The Shakespeare Pictorial re death of George Greenwood (February 1929)
- Letter to Carolyn Wells (6 December 1932)
- Letter to Joan V. Robinson (3 September 1933)
- Letter to Charles Wisner Barrell (6 June 1937)
- Letter to Will D. Howe (2 June 1938)
- Letter to Sigmund Freud (15 July 1938)
- Letter to Eva Turner Clark (10 Nov. 1939)
- Letter to Charles Wisner Barrell (15 May 1942)
