Authority control databases
Richard Jerome Kennedy (born December 23, 1932, in Jefferson City, Missouri), is an American writer of children's books and a supporter of the Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship. He was the first to suggest that John Ford was the author of the 578-line poem A Funeral Elegy which in 1995 had been touted by Donald Foster as being written by William Shakespeare.[1]
Kennedy attended Portland State University, where he graduated with a B.A. in liberal arts in 1958. He additionally earned a teaching certificate in elementary education from the University of Oregon.[2] However, he found teaching elementary school unsatisfactory, so he tried other jobs, including bookstore owner, deep sea fisherman, moss picker, custodian, cab-driver, and archivist, before turning to writing.[3][4]
Kennedy has been a long-time advocate of the theory that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, was the person actually responsible for writing the works of William Shakespeare. He is a founding member of the Shakespeare Fellowship, and in 2005 he proposed that Shakespeare's Stratford monument was originally built to honor John Shakespeare, William's father, who by tradition was a "considerable dealer in wool".[5]
