PAW is a great magazine, and it certainly has the right, indeed the duty, to make its readership aware of the work of Princeton graduates. It’s unfortunate, however, that it devoted space to the long-debunked matter of the Earl of Oxford as the “real” author of Shakespeare’s plays (Princetonians, July/August issue). When you have a great institution like Princeton with a long tradition of superlative Shakespeare study and you publish an article in which an alumnus is being celebrated for making claims that no serious expert, at Princeton or elsewhere, would support, it feels a little as though the real work of the University is being undermined.
PAW is a great magazine, and it certainly has the right, indeed the duty, to make its readership aware of the work of Princeton graduates. It’s unfortunate, however, that it devoted space to the long-debunked matter of the Earl of Oxford as the “real” author of Shakespeare’s plays (Princetonians, July/August issue). When you have a great institution like Princeton with a long tradition of superlative Shakespeare study and you publish an article in which an alumnus is being celebrated for making claims that no serious expert, at Princeton or elsewhere, would support, it feels a little as though the real work of the University is being undermined.