Two major papers on the First Folio will highlight the SOF’s free international Zoom seminar on April 9. The seminar will begin at noon (US eastern time) and run some five hours with a 30- minute break.
The two Folio papers will be presented by scholars Katherine Chiljan during the early session and by Roger Stritmatter during the later session. Both Chiljan and Stritmatter are veteran presenters and among the SOF’s top researchers.
Chiljan’s paper – opening the seminar – will introduce the First Folio and the many intriguing issues it raises for authorship doubters generally and Oxfordians in particular. Stritmatter’s paper will look specifically at “Poetic Form as Code” in the Folio.
Other speakers at this special online seminar will be SOF’s resident historian James Warren, filmmaker Cheryl Eagan-Donovan, scholar Michael Delahoyde and independent researcher Robert Prechter.
A special Authorship101 presentation will be given by Alex McNeil during the seminar and Board member Ben August will offer up a preview of a new SOF Zoom program to be called the Blue Boar Tavern.
Warren, author of the recent volumes Shakespeare Revolutionized and Shakespeare Investigated will be speaking about a number of new publishing projects he is working on while Eagan-Donovan, who received an SOF research grant last year, will be speaking about what she found on her research trip to London.
Professor Delahoyde will be presenting a paper about his current project, an Oxfordian edition of Merchant of Venice with Prechter looking at the life of the 16th century writer Thomas Nashe and asking whether Nashe actually existed.
Former SOF President John Hamill will host the early session; SOF Vice-President and Conference Chair Don Rubin will host the later session. Each session will last about two hours and 15 minutes with a 30-minute break between them.
The seminar is being offered free. More information and registration will be available soon. A web program will be sent in advance to everyone registering. For the record, the date was chosen to coincide with Edward de Vere’s 472nd birthday on April 12, 2022.
“This is an opportunity to reach out to both a national and an international audience,” said SOF President Bob Meyers. “We have papers for scholars and papers for people new to the authorship. Everyone will get a real sense of the kind of work we do on an ongoing basis.
“The two major papers on the First Folio,” added Meyers, “ will actually kick off an 18-month focus by SOF on that subject leading up to the its 400th anniversary in November 2023.”
The SOF will also be holding its next – and oft-postponed — in-person conference this coming September in Ashland, Oregon. The dates are Sept. 22 to 25. Registration and hotel details along with a final Call for Papers for the Ashland Conference will be announced shortly on the website.
