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Shelf Life
Faking Shakespeare
In 1795 a teenager eager to win his father’s respect perpetrated an audacious forgery. In “The Boy Who Would Be Shakespeare: A Tale of Forgery and Folly” (Da Capo), Ipswich resident Doug Stewart revisits the tale of William Henry Ireland (pictured), a 19-year-old clerk in London who pretended that he had found two original Shakespeare plays in an old trunk. His father, who collected rare books and adored Shakespeare, was ecstatic.The teen wrote in an old-fashioned script on parchment with watered-down ink, but the scholars who embraced the discovery should have known better, according to Stewart. Shakespeare’s reputation was in ascendance and people were eager to see his original works. It was a case of wishful thinking.
By the time opening night for one of the forged plays rolled around, the theater owner didn’t care if it was authentic. The production packed in crowds.
The young forger confessed in 1796. His father never warmed up to him, and needless to say, he had a difficult time pursuing a writing career.
Celebrating verse
Established and emerging poets will celebrate National Poetry Month with a marathon reading at the Boston Public Library on April 10. About 60 poets, each allotted 10 minutes, will take to the stage from 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Now in its 10th year, the celebration features prize-winning high school poets as well as Sam Cornish, Boston’s poet laureate, and an open microphone session.Also on April 10, Nikki Giovanni, a poet and activist who now teaches at Virginia Tech, will give a reading at 6 p.m. at First Parish Church in Harvard Square. The civil rights and black power movements played a powerful role in her poetry from the 1960s. More recently she sounded themes of social justice in a poem she wrote about the massacre at Virginia Tech. Giovanni is the editor of “The 100 Best African-American Poems” (Sourcebooks) being published in April. Tickets are $10. Details at www.ccae.org.
Maine festival
Novelists Tess Gerritsen and Anita Shreve, both of whom have a special fondness for Maine, will kick off that state’s annual literary festival on April 9 in Portland.Gerritsen, who lives in Camden, will talk about her “Rizzoli and Isles” mystery novels being made into a TV series by TNT. The mysteries revolve around the crime-solving team of Boston police detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles.
Shreve doesn’t live in Maine but a photograph she took of a house on the Maine coast inspired “The Pilot’s Wife,” recommended by Oprah’s Book Club, as well as two of her other novels.
On April 10 about 30 authors will participate in the Maine Festival of the Book. Subjects include Ayn Rand, Vincente Minnelli, Maine gardens, and the history of Bar Harbor. There will also be a children’s cartooning workshop, a poetry slam, and a theatrical presentation of “That Takes Ovaries: Bold Females and Their Brazen Acts,” based on a book of real-life stories. Events are free except for opening night. Details at www.mainereads.org.
Coming out
■“Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger: New and Selected Stories,” by Lee Smith (Algonquin)■“Still Midnight,” by Denise Mina (Reagan Arthur)
■“Deception,” by Jonathan Kellerman (Ballantine)
Pick of the week
Bridget Allison of Phoenix Books in Essex, Vt., recommends “The Dream of Perpetual Motion” by Dexter Palmer (St. Martin’s): “Palmer’s debut work is an absolutely enchanting novel with elements of steampunk and alternate history, loosely constructed around the plot of Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest.’ ”Jan Gardner can be reached at JanLGardner@yahoo.com. 
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