Shakespeare’s Face: Unraveling the Legend and History of Shakespeare’s Mysterious Portrait

A fascinating literary detective story charting the surprising, true history of a recently discovered painting of Shakespeare held by the same family for 400 years -- adding new drama to the Bard''s life.
When author Stephanie Nolen reported the discovery of the only portrait of William Shakespeare painted while he was alive, the announcement ignited furious controversy around the world.

Now, in this provocative biography of the portrait, she tells the riveting story of how a rare image of the young Bard at thirty-nine came to reside in the suburban home of a retired engineer, whose grandmother kept the family treasure under her bed, and how he embarked on authenticating it. The ultimate Antiques Roadshow dream, the portrait has been confirmed by six years of painstaking forensic studies to date from around 1600, and it has not been altered since.

Stephanie Nolen is the Johannesburg bureau chief for The Globe and Mail, the national newspaper of Canada. She recently reported from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and currently covers the AIDS pandemic in Africa. She is the author of Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race.