Declaration of Reasonable Doubt
2025 Spring Annual Gathering notes
Thank you to everyone who joined us for the Spring 2025 Annual Members Gathering via Zoom. One hundred people joined us from around the world. We are truly awed by everyone’s interest and dedication in joining us from so many countries and so many time zones.
SAT Trustee Sir Mark Rylance started the gathering by reading the full Declaration of Reasonable Doubt as published by our sister organization, The Shakespeare Authorship Coalition (SAC), a California-based non-profit organization dedicated to increasing awareness of questions around the authorship of the Shakespearean canon. Like our organization, the Shakespearean Authorship Trust, the SAC does not advocate for one candidate over another but instead supports research into all possible candidates and is committed to increasing awareness of the Q as a valid area of research.
If you have not signed it yet, join 6,000 fellow doubters, including several “notables,” on the SAC site. The fellowship of Doubters includes luminaries such as Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles, Sigmund Freud, and Mark Twain, another famous writer whose pseudonym was more well-known than his birth name. Sound familiar? Join the long list of notables, including Sir Derek Jacobi and SAT Trustee Sir Mark Rylance, by publicly expressing your doubt that the man from Stratford was THE author of all the works bearing the name “Shakespeare.”
Herewith the beginning of the Declaration
To Shakespeare lovers everywhere, as well as to those who are encountering him for the first time: know that a great mystery lies before you. How could William “Shakspere” of Stratford have been the author, William Shakespeare, and leave no definitive evidence of it that dates from his lifetime? And why is there an enormous gulf between the alleged author’s life and the contents of his works? In the annals of world literature, William Shakespeare is an icon of towering greatness. But who was he?
Present-day Doubters include many more prominent individuals, numerous leading Shakespearean actors, and growing numbers of English professors. Yet orthodox scholars claim that there is no room for doubt that Mr. Shakspere wrote the plays and poems traditionally attributed to him. Some say that it is not even an important question. We, the undersigned, hereby declare our view that there is room for reasonable doubt about the identity of William Shakespeare, and that it is an important question for anyone seeking to understand the works, the formative literary culture in which they were produced, or the nature of literary creativity and genius.
Keep reading and add your name at https://doubtaboutwill.org/declaration.
I want to thank the SAT for making the Declaration of Reasonable Doubt About the Identity of William Shakespeare the subject of its Substack yesterday, and special thanks to Mark Rylance for making it the subject of his talk and for reading the entire Declaration at the SAT's Annual Spring Gathering last Sunday. It is most gratifying to see that after eighteen years the Declaration is still regarded as an important "foundational document" for our movement, as Sir Mark called it. That was one of our main goals in writing it -- to make it an important historical document addressing the threshold question in the controversy: whether there is any room for doubt about the identity of the author. Stratfordians have long pursued a strategy of denying that that is any room at all for doubt in order to stigmatize and suppress the issue. If there is no room for doubt about the case for Mr. Shakspere, then it is irrational to consider alternatives, and all doubters can be summarily dismissed as defective, either in our intellect (incompetent amateurs) or our character (class snobs). The Declaration directly contradicts the central point in their narrative, which is why it upsets them. Rather than being on offense, attacking doubters and our alternative candidates, the Declaration puts Stratfordians on the defensive, focusing attention on the weakness of the case for their man. The fact that they've never been able to write a rebuttal is surely a great embarrassment to them.
I want to address the comment during last Sunday's chat that having fewer than 6,000 signatories (currently 5,595) is unimpressive. The point is not how many signatories we have but who they are. Our signatories are a very impressive group, including 78% college graduates (more than twice the proportion in the general population), 39% with advanced degrees (945 doctoral degrees and 1,252 master's degrees), 942 current or former college/university faculty members, and129 "notables" -- leading Shakespearean actors, outstanding academics, and two former US Supreme Court justices. Our signatories provide a profile of who authorship doubters really are, as opposed to the false stereotype Stratfordians have created that we're all a bunch of incompetent amateurs and snobs. We have quite enough signatories to make that point, undercutting a key Statfordian argument.
Only a small percentage of those who visit the Declaration end up signing, but this is unsurprising. The authorship question is a complex issue that most people are unfamiliar with. Upon first reading the Declaration, it is understandable that they would not know what to make of it. They are getting one point of view, and they don't know how accurate it is; so naturally they would hesitate to sign. They may also be aware that orthodox scholars and the media are openly hostile toward the issue. Plus, one must feel strongly about such an issue to be willing to take a public stand by signing on. Seen in that context, I think it is impressive that so many people have felt strong enough to sign. For the others, it's good that they've been introduced to it and can look into it further if they like.
What most concerns me is our inability to get media attention for the Declaration and our cause. When the Declaration was launched back in 2007, it was covered by The Observer and BBC News., and the story went worldwide. On that occasion, we got over 700 signatories within just 24 hours. During the last week, we added 13 signatories, which is nice, but not enough to make a difference. If we are ever to achieve a breakthrough, we need to find a way to reach a much larger audience. I'd be interested in any thoughts that SAT members may have about how to go about doing that.
-- John M. Shahan, Chairman and CEO, Shakespeare Authorship Coalition
Thank you so much for organizing this gathering. It is fantastic, especially for those of us who live abroad.