Who was Shakespeare?

While the academic world is solidly behind William Shakespeare of Stratford, such notables as Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud, Derek Jacobi, Walt Whitman and Orson Welles have questioned whether he could have written the works credited to him. Among those who suspect that Shakespeare of Stratford was not the author of the plays and sonnets, the candidates who have been put forth as the real Shakespeare include Sir Frances Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, and Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, among others.
There are a number of Oxford titles, either to be praised or condemned, depending on one’s leanings; I suggest two titles as especially thought-provoking: “Shakespeare” by another name: the life of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, the man who was Shakespeare, by Mark Anderson, and Shakespear Revealed in Oxford’s Letters: the Pre-Armada Letters, 1563-1585, and the Post-Armada Letters, 1590-1603 of Edward de Vere, Seventeenth Earl of Oxford by William Plumer Fowler.  If you read only one of Oxford’s letters, read the letter which records his thoughts on the death of Queen Elizabeth.
We’ll probably never resolve the authorship controversy to anyone’s satisfaction, and Shakespeare, whoever he really was, will remain a mystery.                             ~ Brenda