The Monument
Shakespeare's Sonnets


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About the Author

Hank Whittemore is the author of 10 previously published books that include The Super Cops, CNN: The Inside Story, So That Others May Live and Your Future Self.In addition to writing dozens of cover stories for PARADE magazine, the Sunday supplement, he has created many narration scripts for documentary-TV segments of The Body Human, CBS; The American Sportsman, ABC; NOVA; and scores of other programs.  A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, he has been a professional actor, newspaper reporter, radio news director, columnist and playwright.    

Hank began researching the life of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford in 1987.  Since then he has been involved in organizations such as the Shakespeare Oxford Society, the Shakespeare Authorship Studies Conference, the Shakespeare Authorship Roundtable and the Shakespeare Fellowship.  In the winter of 1998-1999, after more than a decade of studying the Sonnets in relation to Oxford's life, he discovered that the numbered verses comprise an elegant "monument" to preserve a political diary for posterity... 

At the center of the structure, Edward de Vere explains his "invention" or special language (akin to the language of DNA) that determines the entire form and content of the sonnet sequence.  The result is the "living record" of Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton in relation to the ever-waning life, reign and dynasty of Queen Elizabeth I of England -- a genuine historical document in which Oxford tells why and how he saved Southampton's life by agreeing to bury the truth of his own life:  "Your name from hence immortal life shall have, though I (once gone) to all the world must die."

The Monument demonstrates this discovery as it applies to each line of the 154 sonnets, while placing the entire sequence within a specific framework of historical circumstance and chronology.  


L. H. (HANK) WHITTEMORE

Shakespeare-Oxford Authorship:  Writer, Researcher, Speaker

The Monument – new edition of the Sonnets based on recent discoveries.  (Teaching seminars, classes, syllabus.)

Regular Column in Shakespeare Matters, quarterly newsletter of the Shakespeare Fellowship (2001-2005); Editorial Board Member
Keynote Speaker, Edward de Vere Studies Conference, Concordia University, April 2002
Papers/Speeches/Articles for Shakespeare-Oxford Society Conferences since 1991
Annual Speaker Killington, VT, Shakespeare Festival (1999-Present)
Authorship Study since 1987

Books:  Author

1. Your Future Self – Inner Universe of Molecular Medicine – Thames & Hudson, 1998
2. So That Others May Live – Woman & Search Dogs - Bantam, hard/soft; Reader’s Digest (Best Nonfiction), 1995
3. CNN: The Inside Story – Ted Turner’s All-News Startup - Little, Brown, 1990
4. Find the Magician – True Story of Counterfeiter in London – Viking; Book of the Month Club, 1980
5. Peroff – True Story of Watergate – Morrow; Ballantine, 1974
6. The Super Cops – True Story of Brooklyn Cops Nicknamed Batman & Robin – Stein 6. & Day; Bantam (New York Times Best Seller List, Book Find Book Club; Playboy Book Club; MGM Movie, Gordon Parks, Director, 1973)
7. Together – Portrait of New Black Politics – Morrow, 1971
8. Feeling It – Novel – Morrow – Literary Guild, 1971
9. Cop! – Close-up of Police at work – Holt, Rinehart; Life Magazine; Fawcett-Crest, 1969
10. The Man Who Ran the Subways – Biography of Mike Quill – Holt, Rinehart, 1968

Magazines:  Writer

Parade (100 Cover Stories), 1974-1997
Playboy, 1977
New York Magazine, 1973 

Newspapers:  Writer

Regular Syndicated Column in Gannett newspapers New York State, 1971
City Hall reporter White Plains Reporter Dispatch, 1965-6

Theater:  Playwright, Actor

Playwriting – Winner, Little Theatre of Alexandria National One-Act Playwriting Contest, 1988
Winner, Playwriting Contest, University of Notre Dame, 1963
Actor – Broadway, Off-Broadway, Regional, TV (1962-1982)

            "Take Her, She's Mine" - Broadway
             Cassio in Othello; Laertes in "Hamlet"

Documentary Television:  Script Writer

Ad Council – “Fire,” 1996
PBS Specials – Space Program, 1991; Israeli Politics, 1992 
TBS Special on Rivers/Environment with Cicely Tyson, 1988
Phil Donahue Examines the Human Animal – (Writer, Five Part Series) – NBC, 1986
NOVA – “Tornado!,” 1985
American Sportsman – ABC – one Emmy Award; 38 Cine Golden Eagle Awards, 1977-1983
Omni: The New Frontier – National Syndication, ABC-New York , 1982
The Body Human – CBS – two Emmy nominations; Writer’s Guild Award, 1979-81

Video:  Writer, Director

1990-1991 IBM “Global Vision” traveling video exhibit
1985 Baseball Hall of Fame video exhibit, Cooperstown, NY (100 videos, ran 10 years)
1984 US Constitution Exhibit at Independence Hall (100 videos)
1982 World’s Fair, Tennessee, US Energy Pavilion exhibit

Radio:  News Director, News Announcer

WVOX, New Rochelle, 1966

College

“Great Books” BA,
Communication Arts BA

UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME, 1963