de Vere

Malcolm X even suggested King James I, but these days the most popular candidate is the 17th Earl of Oxford Edward de Vere.

De Vere, for instance, studied at Cambridge, traveled in Europe, spent time in Italy, wrote lyric poetry and was comfortably familiar with court life.

Could De Vere’s authorship, or that of anyone else, have been kept secret both then and through the centuries?

Over the years, speculation has centered mostly on a handful of men, namely Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, Christopher Marlowe and Francis Bacon.

In the mid-1960s, Ms. Murphy was romantically involved with Terence de Vere White, then literary editor of the Irish Times, who was married with children.