The late David J. Hanson, a classically-trained scholar, had been an avid reader of the plays and sonnets attributed to William Shakespeare. David, however, did not believe that William Shakespeare had written the plays.
Hence, he founded The De Vere Foundation to contribute to the research surrounding the “authorship” question.
In 1971, David learned about the Shakespeare authorship question in a peculiar way. He had been reading a speech by Sigmund Freud, and at the bottom of the page was a footnote referencing a book by J. T. Looney.
He ordered a copy of the book.
After an exciting reading of Looney's Shakespeare Identified, David became convinced, along with Freud, Mark Twain, William James, and many other notable personalities, that the author of the plays was none other than Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford.
Approaching the authorship question like Sherlock Holmes might look for a missing person, Looney used fact-based evidence and logic to find his man.
He found him.
Picking up where Looney left off, and for the last 50 years of his life, David worked indefatigably, often against many obstacles, to uncover tangible proof that Lord Oxford was the author of the most excellent canon of literary and historical work ever produced in the English language.
The authorship question is an essential question for several reasons. The first is that without knowing that Edward de Vere was the genius behind the works attributed to William Shakespeare, we lose access to many lessons inherent in the plays. Some of these lessons include an untold "insider's" history of Elizabeth's court and times, as well as de Vere's personal and often tragic struggles as a prominent figure in the court of Elizabeth.
One could argue, too, as some of the plays indicate, that there may have been an error in the hereditary right to the throne after Elizabeth died, a question of royal and political intrigue, no doubt. For some, it may be a question that's better not to raise?
Furthermore, understanding that Lord Oxford was a teacher and that at the heart of his plays was a study of ethics and politics, David believed that de Vere's canon should be central to every college curriculum whose aim was to provide a sound education.
As the Greeks put the works of Homer at the core of their education, the English-speaking world should put "Shake-speare" at the heart of their education.
But first, the authorship question needed to be put to rest, and then David would tackle the problem of modern education.
But life comes to an end for all of us. It came to an end for David on April 16, 2016. His previous titled works needed reprinting, and he had two more that were not quite finished.
The De Vere Foundation's goal, now directed by David's daughter, Elizabeth, is to bring her father's research to the public and continue the discussion of who authored the brilliant plays attributed to the illiterate man from Stratford.