Donald W. Foster, born 1950, is a professor of English at Vassar College in New York. He is known for his work dealing with various issues of Shakespearean authorship through textual analysis. He has also applied these techniques in attempting to uncover mysterious authors of some high-profile contemporary texts. As several of these were in the context of criminal investigations, Foster has sometimes been labeled a "forensic linguist". 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Vassar College is a highly selective, private, coeducational liberal arts college situated in Poughkeepsie, New York. ... Official language(s) English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  Ranked 27th  - Total 54,520 sq mi (141,205 km²)  - Width 285 miles (455 km)  - Length 330 miles (530 km)  - % water 13. ... The frontispiece of the First Folio (1623), the first collected edition of Shakespeares plays From 1593 to 1637, a number of plays and poems were published under the name William Shakespeare or, in many cases, simply Shake-speare. The company that performed most of these plays, the Lord Chamberlain...

Shakespearean scholarship

Foster first achieved notice for addressing the mystery of the dedication of Shakespeare's sonnets. In the edition published by Thomas Thorpe, a dedication appears to "Mr. W.H." as the "onlie begetter" of the sonnets, and the identity of W.H. has been much speculated at over the years. While in graduate school at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Foster formulated a theory that it was a typographical error. Though not the first to articulate the possibility, his article appeared in the Publication of the Modern Language Association in 1987, after he joined the Vassar faculty. Foster argued that the initials were meant to read either "W.S." or "W.SH." for Shakespeare himself, with Thorpe presumably having written the dedication. Foster pointed to Shakespeare's initials being similarly abbreviated in other documents, as well as contemporaneous publications that misspelled author's initials in the error-filled manuscripts of the time. Title page from 1609 edition of Shake-Speares Sonnets Shakespeares Sonnets, or simply The Sonnets comprise a collection of 154 poems in sonnet form written by William Shakespeare that deal with such themes as love, beauty, politics, and mortality. ... Thomas Thorpe (c. ... The University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) is a coeducational public university located on the Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara County, California. ... The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Fifth Edition The Modern Language Association of America (MLA) is the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of literature and literary criticism. ...

In 1995, Foster suggested that Shakespeare may have been the author of a 1612 poem, A Funerall Elegye in memory of the late Vertuous Maister William Peeter, the first new Shakespeare identification in over a century. The work had been registered with the London Stationers by Thorpe, publisher of the sonnets, giving the author's initials as "W.S." Foster supported his identification with computer analysis based on a database he called SHAXICON, to compare the poem's word choice with that of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Although the poem is not considered to be of great quality, it was subsequently included in some editions of Shakespeare's complete works. Because of its date, it also would have put to rest the theory attributing Shakespeare's works to Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, as the latter died in 1604. 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Events January 20 - Mathias becomes Holy Roman Emperor. ... The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. ... The Earl of Oxford, from the 1914 publication English Travellers of the Renaissance by Clare Howard Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (April 12, 1550 – June 24, 1604), Elizabethan literary figure, was born at Castle Hedingham to the 16th Earl of Oxford. ... Events January 14 – Hampton Court conference with James I of England, the Anglican bishops and representatives of Puritans September 20 – Capture of Ostend by Spanish forces under Ambrosio Spinola after a three year siege. ...

It is a common misconception that Foster claimed to have positively identified Shakespeare as the author. In reality, Foster suggested that there was strong evidence, but never claimed that Shakespeare was, without a doubt, the author of the poem. When Gilles Monsarrat, a translator of Shakespeare into French, published an article arguing that the poem's true author was John Ford, Foster conceded that Monsarrat had the better case in a post on a Shakespearean listserv, saying, "No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes deserves to be called a scholar." Foster said he had not previously analyzed Ford's works closely enough and had erroneously dismissed him as a possibility. John Ford (baptized April 17, 1586 - c. ... Electronic mailing lists are a special usage of e-mail that allows for widespread distribution of information to many Internet users. ...

Literary analysis in contemporary cases

Meanwhile, the publicity surrounding Foster's "literary detective" skills had put him in demand to track down the authors of various anonymous and pseudonymous texts. Using a mixture of traditional scholarship and computers to perform textual comparisons, Foster looks for unique and unusual usage patterns. In his own words:

Anybody with dexterity and brains can fake handwriting, but (given a sufficiently large text sample) no one can utterly disguise his own linguistic habits (spelling, diction, grammatical accidence, syntax, internal biographical evidence, psycholinguistic material, etc.)

It should be noted that computer based statistical techniques for textual analysis had been used by historians long before Foster developed his own, most notably with the Federalist Papers, with very little controversy. An advertisement for The Federalist The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 articles arguing for the ratification of the United States Constitution. ...

High points in Foster's work include:

• "outing" Joe Klein as the author of Primary Colors - though he was not the first to identify Klein as the writer of this "anonymous" bestseller - former Clinton speechwriter David Kusnet came to the same conclusion, publishing his research in the Baltimore Sun before Foster named Klein in New York Magazine.

• confirming David Kaczynski's testimony that the Unabomber manifesto was written by his brother, Ted. Foster was called in after Ted Kaczynski's arrest, and after David Kaczynski announced that the manifesto matched his brother's writings.

• identifying an obscure Beat writer, Tom Hawkins, as the author of the Wanda Tinasky letters, commonly assumed to be the work of Thomas Pynchon.

• confirming a Livingston family tradition that it was their ancestor, Henry Livingston Jr., and not Clement Clarke Moore, who wrote A Visit from St. Nicholas.

Foster became involved in the investigation of the JonBenét Ramsey murder case in 1997, conducting analysis for law enforcement. In a book about the investigation, the lead detective wrote that Foster had told him his conclusion that the ransom note in the case had been written by Patsy. Primary Colors, a 1996 novel by Anonymous (later revealed by Donald Foster to be journalist Joe Klein), is a roman à clef about U.S. President Bill Clintons first presidential campaign in 1992. ... Unabomber is a nickname applied to three people: Theodore Kaczynski, an American terrorist. ... The term Beat Generation refers primarily to a group of American writers of the 1950s. ... Wanda Tinasky, ostensibly a bag lady living under a bridge in the Mendocino County area of Northern California, was the pseudonymous author of a series of playful, comic and erudite letters sent to the Mendocino Commentary and Anderson Valley Advertiser between 1983 and 1988. ... Thomas Pynchon in 1957 Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. ... Major Henry Livingston Jr. ... Clement Clarke Moore, (July 15, 1779 – July 10, 1863), is best known as the credited author of A Visit From St. ... Cover of a 1912 edition of the poem. ... JonBenet Ramsey JonBenét Patricia Ramsey (August 6, 1990 – December 25, 1996) was a child beauty pageant queen who was found murdered in the basement of her parents home in Boulder, Colorado, United States, eight hours after being reported missing. ...

Foster was called in by the FBI during the investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks. He later wrote an article for Vanity Fair about his investigation of Steven Hatfill, a virologist who had been labeled a "person of interest" by Attorney General John Ashcroft. Foster tried to match up Hatfill's travels with the postmarks on the anthrax letters, as well as analyze old interviews and an unpublished novel by Hatfill about a bioterror attack on the United States in the October 2003 article that Foster wrote for Vanity Fair magazine. Hatfill was identified as a possible culprit. The 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, also known as Amerithrax from its FBI codename, occurred over the course of several weeks beginning on September 18, 2001 (a week after the September 11, 2001 attacks). ... Vanity Fair is a glossy American glamour magazine monthly that offers a mixture of articles on high-brow culture, jet-set and entertainment-business personalities, politics, and current affairs. ... Dr. Steven Jay Hatfill (born October 24, 1953) is a virologist and bio-weapons expert. ... Person of interest is a phrase used by US Attorney General John Ashcroft to describe the status of Dr Steven J Hatfill during the FBIs investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks. ... Alberto Gonzales, current Attorney General of the United States The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. ... John David Ashcroft (born May 9, 1942) was the 79th Attorney General of the United States. ...

Hatfill subsequently sued Donald Foster, Conde Nast Publications, Vassar College, and The Reader's Digest Association. The suit seeks $10 million in damages, claiming defamation. The Reader's Digest published a condensed version of the article in December 2003. October 30th, 2006 article in The Journal News Westchester, NY In English and American law, and systems based on them, libel and slander are two forms of defamation (or defamation of character), which is the tort or delict of making a false statement of fact that injures someones reputation. ...

Bibliography

• Elegy by W.S.: A Study in Attribution (1989). ISBN 0-87413-335-1
• Author Unknown: On the Trail of Anonymous (2000). ISBN 0-8050-6357-9

References

• Crain, Caleb. "The Bard's Fingerprints". Lingua Franca, July/August 1998.
• Niederkorn, William S. "A Scholar Recants on His 'Shakespeare' Discovery". New York Times, June 20, 2002.
• Popkin, Jim. "Hatfill strikes back in anthrax case". MSNBC, October 4, 2004.
• "Possible Shakespeare Poem Found in Library". Associated Press, December 31, 1995.
• Roark, Anne C. "Bard's Sonnets A Mystery at Long Last Resolved?" Los Angeles Times, February 18, 1987.

June 20 is the 171st day of the year (172nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 194 days remaining. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... October 4 is the 277th day of the year (278th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December 31 is the 365th day of the year (366th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... February 18 is the 49th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Shaksper.net posting in which Foster acknowledges that Monsarrat has shown Ford to be the author of the Elegy