A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare

James Shapiro, a professor at Columbia University, gives students an intimate history of Shakespeare, allowing them to follow him through a single year-1599-that changed not only Shakespeare’s fortunes but the course of literature.

How was Shakespeare transformed from being a talented poet and playwright to become one of the greatest writers who ever lived? In this one exhilarating year students follow what he reads and writes, what he sees, and with whom he works as he invests in the new Globe Theatre and creates four of his most famous plays—Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet.