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The original manuscript which this book is based on was written over a period of decades up until his death in 1608 by the Elizabethan poet, playwright, and statesman Thomas Sackville. The manuscript was purportedly found in 1993, 400 years after the name William Shakespeare first appeared in print.
Sackville wrote the text as an autobiography in the first half, then in the second explored the lives of others: John Webster, Thomas Middleton, Ben Jonson, Edmund Spenser, Edward Dyer, Robert Greene, Thomas North, Michael Drayton, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Watson, Richard Barnfield, Thomas Kyd, and John Fletcher, though it is clear that Sackville is the central figure of the tale.
Sackville claims in this document to have been the true author of the plays and poetry with Shakespeare’s name on them, the Shakespeare Canon as it is commonly called. The other writers explored in the text mentioned above were those who were his closest collaborators over a 70 year period, including decades after his death when the later writers helped to revise the work for the 1623 First Folio.
This discovery in 1993 was not noted at the time, the individuals who found the manuscript not wanting to be known. Through a correspondence between an anonymous person and myself that started in 2022, it was agreed I could share this story with the rest of the world. The person who shared the manuscript, after hearing me speak on an underground occult podcast in 2021, did so believing I was a descendant of Sackville, for his birth name was actually Will Hunter, and I, obviously, share his birth last name.
My explanation that I legally changed my name as an adult to Hunter - long story for another time - and that it was not my birth name, did not deter the anonymous person. Through some online research with 23andMe, they said I was related to them and that they were also descendants of Will Hunter/Thomas Sackville, that we were part of the Sackville family tree, something which I of course did not know.
I’ve tried to figure out who this person communicating with me is, but throughout my correspondence, I have been unable to do so. A number of times I believed this manuscript and their claims to be a hoax, someone playing a practical joke on me. At first providing more evidence that it was a hoax, on April 1st (April Fool’s) of this year, I received a package in the mail, sender unknown, of 16th and 17th century government documents from England, Ireland, France, Spain, and Italy, that confirmed to me the truth of Sackville’s story. What exactly these documents are and by whom I have sworn to secrecy all but one, the manuscript by Sackville.
I had read the manuscript since 2022 via a Word doc from the anonymous person, but now had it in my hands. As much as I would like to share the other documents with the rest of the world, which would finally put to a conclusion the search for the identity of the true author(s) of the Shakespeare Canon, I am unable to do so. I was sadly required to return all the documents as well, which I did to a P.O. Box they provided.
Sackville’s (and the others) story has been rewritten by me for 21st century readers, who otherwise would be, for the most part, unfamiliar with the English of the times. The bizarre, surreal aspect to the tale, occult experiences and dark secrets, romances and friendships, joy and pain, tragedies and triumphs, artistic and intellectual revolutions, adventures of all kinds has been retained, to the best of my abilities.
My rewriting of the text is meant to both retain this essence and provide a 400 year bridge between the 17th and 21st centuries. I am forever grateful to have been included in the telling of Sackville’s story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
Derek Hunter,
December 5th 2023
The image at the top of this page, and for the cover of the book, is Fool's Cap Map of the World from around 1590. The artist is unknown, and the intention for the map's creation is also a mystery. The painting below is Venus and Adonis by Titian, which was enormously influential on the narrative poem, Venus and Adonis of 1593, the first time William Shakespeare's name appeared in print.
- Derek Hunter
CLICK HERE FOR THE KINDLE VERSION
The original manuscript which this book is based on was written over a period of decades up until his death in 1608 by the Elizabethan poet, playwright, and statesman Thomas Sackville. The manuscript was purportedly found in 1993, 400 years after the name William Shakespeare first appeared in print.
Sackville wrote the text as an autobiography in the first half, then in the second explored the lives of others: John Webster, Thomas Middleton, Ben Jonson, Edmund Spenser, Edward Dyer, Robert Greene, Thomas North, Michael Drayton, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Watson, Richard Barnfield, Thomas Kyd, and John Fletcher, though it is clear that Sackville is the central figure of the tale.
Sackville claims in this document to have been the true author of the plays and poetry with Shakespeare’s name on them, the Shakespeare Canon as it is commonly called. The other writers explored in the text mentioned above were those who were his closest collaborators over a 70 year period, including decades after his death when the later writers helped to revise the work for the 1623 First Folio.
This discovery in 1993 was not noted at the time, the individuals who found the manuscript not wanting to be known. Through a correspondence between an anonymous person and myself that started in 2022, it was agreed I could share this story with the rest of the world. The person who shared the manuscript, after hearing me speak on an underground occult podcast in 2021, did so believing I was a descendant of Sackville, for his birth name was actually Will Hunter, and I, obviously, share his birth last name.
My explanation that I legally changed my name as an adult to Hunter - long story for another time - and that it was not my birth name, did not deter the anonymous person. Through some online research with 23andMe, they said I was related to them and that they were also descendants of Will Hunter/Thomas Sackville, that we were part of the Sackville family tree, something which I of course did not know.
I’ve tried to figure out who this person communicating with me is, but throughout my correspondence, I have been unable to do so. A number of times I believed this manuscript and their claims to be a hoax, someone playing a practical joke on me. At first providing more evidence that it was a hoax, on April 1st (April Fool’s) of this year, I received a package in the mail, sender unknown, of 16th and 17th century government documents from England, Ireland, France, Spain, and Italy, that confirmed to me the truth of Sackville’s story. What exactly these documents are and by whom I have sworn to secrecy all but one, the manuscript by Sackville.
I had read the manuscript since 2022 via a Word doc from the anonymous person, but now had it in my hands. As much as I would like to share the other documents with the rest of the world, which would finally put to a conclusion the search for the identity of the true author(s) of the Shakespeare Canon, I am unable to do so. I was sadly required to return all the documents as well, which I did to a P.O. Box they provided.
Sackville’s (and the others) story has been rewritten by me for 21st century readers, who otherwise would be, for the most part, unfamiliar with the English of the times. The bizarre, surreal aspect to the tale, occult experiences and dark secrets, romances and friendships, joy and pain, tragedies and triumphs, artistic and intellectual revolutions, adventures of all kinds has been retained, to the best of my abilities.
My rewriting of the text is meant to both retain this essence and provide a 400 year bridge between the 17th and 21st centuries. I am forever grateful to have been included in the telling of Sackville’s story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
Derek Hunter,
December 5th 2023
The image at the top of this page, and for the cover of the book, is Fool's Cap Map of the World from around 1590. The artist is unknown, and the intention for the map's creation is also a mystery. The painting below is Venus and Adonis by Titian, which was enormously influential on the narrative poem, Venus and Adonis of 1593, the first time William Shakespeare's name appeared in print.
- Derek Hunter
