William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is considered by many to be one of the greatest English poets and playwrights ever.  In addition to being an actor, he wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets. What's remarkable about his work is that his plays and the sonnets are all still popular.

Born on April 23rd in 1564 in Stratford upon Avon to John and Mary Shakespeare.  In 1582, while just 18 years old, he marries Anne Hathaway who was 26 at the time.  

Anne Hathaway

They had eight children. Their first child, Susanna, was born in 1583.  He began his career as actor and playwright in 1585.  It was in 1589 that he wrote his first play, Henry VIs , Part One.  

In 1599 the famous original Globe Theater opened and many of his plays were performed there.

Globe Theater

In 1613 the Globe Theater burns down.  However, it only took a year for the Globe to be rebuilt and reopened (1614).  Sadly, Shakespeare dies on April 23rd two years later in 1616.  His wife, Anne Hathaway lives for 7 more years and dies in 1623.  That is the same year that two of his fellow actors John Hemminges and Henry Condell publish a collection of 36 of his 37 plays for the first time in a collection called the The First Folio. 

Library Resources

ACC Library Services has print books, online e-books, films, and database resources on Shakespeare and his works in our library collection.  You can find and access almost all of the resources from the library webpage.   

Here are a few quick tips on how to look up and access Shakespeare library resources:

Print Books - Use the More Library Catalog Options link in the Quickly Find Books, Videos & More box on our homepage.  Then pick the Advanced Search link under More Search Options.  When it opens up change the first field to "Author," and type in Shakespeare, William.  Then pick BOOK in the Material Type box.  Hit search and you'll get 133  results for print books.  It's important to note here that you can have books sent from any to any other campus for you to pick up and check-out.

E-Books - These are books that you can read online.  Use the More Library Catalog Options link mentioned above and then hit the green Online e-Books box.  You'll get to a list of our online e-book resources.   

•  EBL - Comes up with 126 results that you can narrow down by using the options in the left-hand sidebar once the results come up.
• eBooks on EBSCOhost - Returns 180 results for Shakespeare, William.  Remember that you can always narrow your results by using the advance search options or the left-hand sidebar.
• Gale Virtual Reference Library, Oxford Reference Online, and Salem History also have quite a bit of information about Shakespeare available. 
• The Online Books Page and Project Gutenberg listed under Available to the General Public also have quite a few books you can access online.

Streaming Video - Use the A-Z List of Resources in the right-hand sidebar to pull up a list of our online databases.  Go to the Alphabetical list of database titles and click the letter F.  Once it opens up choose Films on Demand.  When the page opens, use the drop down arrow in the search box and pick Titles.  Then type in Shakespeare,William and enjoy your 39 streaming videos.

Articles - Pick the Literature and Literary Criticism link in the gray-box mentioned above and use pretty much any of the databases that come up.  Remember when using these databases that search strategies can vary from database to database so use the help function in the databases to get relevant results.

Also, the Subject Guides listed under both the Articles & Research and the Research Help headings in left-hand sidebar can help.  Take a look the Drama and English guides for additional help in looking up information about Shakespeare and his works.