Could a treasure trove of 400-year-old letters constitute a previously unknown "diary" written by William Shakespeare? After 25 years of research, we believe the astonishing answer is yes. We learn that Shakespeare left home bound for the New World, where he hoped to restore is family's fortunes. Although he never made it to North American shores, these letters uncover the truth about the earliest pilgrims and reveal that Shakespeare was kept closer to home to fight in a pivotal battle for England against Spain (and that he used his theatrical talents to help win it). Overall, these remarkable letters represent a wealth of as-yet-undiscovered knowledge about Shakespeare's relationships, personality, and career as he carves out his place in the chaotic world of 16th-century London, describing vibrant details from his arrival in London to the premiere of Titus Andronicus, his first play to be staged.
In 1989 I was an actor and performed a one-man play about the life of William Shakespeare in London. "Miss B", an elderly woman who had seen the play more than once, was apparently sufficiently impressed by my impersonation of the Bard that she offered to show me some old, never-published letters that she believed were written by William Shakespeare. Although I was initially skeptical, it was an offer too good to pass up and, to be honest, as a struggling actor in those days, I didn't have anything better to do with my time! We met almost daily for several weeks and what I discovered began to unravel almost everything I thought I knew about the great poet and playwright.
The Prologue to The Lost Letters of William Shakespeare: The Undiscovered Diary of his Strange Eventful Life and Loves describes our meetings, more about my mysterious benefactor, and how I spent over two decades since then decoding and researching what these letters had to say.
In brief, Shakespeare left his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon in 1586 as a jack-of-all-trades for a troupe of traveling players. He wrote the letters to his friend John Combe, but intended them as a record of his journey, including the whys and wherefores, so that his son, Hamnet (two years old in 1586) would know his father in the event he was unable to return. Because he wanted to "report his cause aright", his letters are remarkably detailed and intimate.
Although Hamnet never apparently saw these letters (and Shakespeare did return home) we are the beneficiaries of his observations of life in Elizabethan England; first-hand secrets about the rulers of the land (and those who sought to rule); his participation in the war with Spain that could have changed history (and why we would be speaking Spanish in America today, among other alternate possible outcomes); bitter truths about his father, wife, and patrons; identities revealed of a Dark Lady and a heroic lady loved and lost.
The Lost Letters of William Shakespeare are updated for the modern reader and based on a very true story!
Author Biography:
Although he studied theatre and spent several years performing and directing Shakespeare's plays, Terry Tamminen may be the most unlikely person to have discovered The Lost Letters of William Shakespeare.. He studied Theatre Arts at California State University Northridge; directed the Burbank Civic Light Opera and Malibu Summerstage Theatre; served as the resident Shakespeare lecturer for the Los Angeles Music Center Education Division; and wrote Will Power, the life of William Shakespeare, a one-man play that he performed in the US, Europe, and Africa. While performing the play in England in 1989, he discovered the lost letters of William Shakespeare and has been researching their authenticity and context for over two decades. A United States Coast Guard-licensed ship captain, Terry has long been drawn to the undersea world and to the preservation of ocean resources including studies on conch depletion in the Bahamas, manatee populations in Florida coastal waters, and mariculture in the Gulf States with Texas A&M University. He founded the non-profit Santa Monica BayKeeper in 1993 and serves today on the Board of Directors of the International Waterkeeper Alliance. He later served as the Executive Director of the Environment Now Foundation in Santa Monica, CA and co-founded the Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic at the School of Law, University of California Los Angeles. In the summer of 2003, Terry helped Arnold Schwarzenegger win the historic recall election and become Governor of California. He was appointed as the Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency in November 2003 and was later appointed Cabinet Secretary, the Chief Policy Advisor to the Governor. During his service in state government, Terry was the architect of many groundbreaking sustainability policies, including the Hydrogen Highway Network, the Million Solar Roofs initiative, California's landmark Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, and the creation of over a million acres of ocean parks along California's coastline. In February 2007, Terry founded the non-profit organization Seventh Generation Advisors to help other states and world governments adopt clean energy and sustainability polices based on California's successes. He was named the Cullman Senior Fellow for climate policy at The New America Foundation and has advised global companies and institutional investors on sustainability, including Walmart, Proctor & Gamble, Netjets, Pegasus Capital Advisors, California's pension funds, and the University of California Regents Endowment. In 2008, Terry served as an energy and climate change policy advisor to presidential candidate Barak Obama and has continued to advise his Energy Secretaries and USEPA Administrators since then. In 2010 Terry co-founded the R20 Regions of Climate Action in collaboration with the United Nations, a new public-private partnership, bringing together sub-national governments; businesses; financial markets; NGOs; and academia to implement measurable, large-scale, low-carbon and climate resilient economic development projects that can simultaneously solve the climate crisis and build a sustainable global economy. Terry joined forces with actor and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio in 2016 and serves today as CEO of his Foundation. Learn more at http: //leonardodicaprio.org Terry Tamminen was named Vanity Fair's May 2007 Environmental Hero and in TIME Magazine's 2007 Earthday edition, he was featured in the 51 Things We Can Do section. In 2008, The Guardian ranked Terry No. 1 in its Top 50 People Who Can Save the Planet. In 2009, Tamminen was named an Eco Baron in Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Edward Humes's book, Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers, and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet. In 2011, Terry was one of six finalists for the Zayed Future Energy Prize.
