April 23, 2014

This portrait of William Shakespeare is generally considered the only likeness painted during his lifetime. The portrait is called the Chandos portrait because it was once owned by the Duke of Chandos. (Portrait of William Shakespeare, c.1610, oil on canvas painting attributed to John Taylor; National Portrait Gallery, London–Bridgeman Art Library.)

Today we celebrate the 450th birthday of William Shakespeare, England’s greatest poet and playwright. There is no birth record for Shakespeare, but the baptismal record at the parish church of Holy Trinity in Stratford-upon-Avon shows that he was baptized on April 26, 1564, and the poet’s birth has traditionally been observed on the 23rd of April.

Shakespeare wrote at least 38 plays, 2 major narrative poems, 154 sonnets, and several short poems. It would be difficult to overstate the importance that this body of work has had for English literature. Shakespeare’s stories and characters draw readers in and hold them rapt. His insight into human behavior makes his writing as relevant today as it was when he wrote it. Many of the ideas we have today about drama, characters, and dialogue are rooted in Shakespeare’s works.

His use of language was also beautiful and his ability to create phrases and metaphors was so apt we often still use them today. Just a small sample of the Shakespeare we quote without realizing it includes referring to jealousy as a “green-eyed monster” (Othello), or saying that “love is blind” (The Merchant of Venice) or that someone has a “heart of gold” (Henry V).

Events that celebrate Shakespeare’s birth are being celebrated around the world. In England, the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in Stratford-upon-Avon is celebrating a three year Jubilee between 2014 and 2016. In April 2014, the RSC is leading free workshops, activities and performances; and it is hosting an amazing fireworks display that includes a 26-foot (8-meter) high fire-drawing of Shakespeare’s face. Stratford will also host a birthday procession that ends up at Holy Trinity church, where Shakespeare and his wife, Anne Hathaway, are buried. At London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, an ensemble cast will be reciting all of the sonnets.

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is hosting family festivals, performances, lectures, scholarly conferences–and even serving birthday cake–during the month of April. Events are also being held by New York City’s Shakespeare Society, by public libraries, and by repertory companies across the United States and Canada.

Additional World Book articles:

• Shakespeare, William
• In Love With Shakespeare (a special report)

Additional websites:

• In Search of Shakespeare (4-part PBS television program with website)
• The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

February 25, 2013

British actor Daniel Day-Lewis received this year’s Academy Award for best actor for the title role in Steven Spielberg’s motion picture Lincoln. Day-Lewis is first man to win the best actor prize three times. He previously received Oscars for My Left Foot (1989) and There Will be Blood (2007). His co-star in the film, Sally Field, who played Mary Todd Lincoln, was nominated but failed to win in the best supporting actress category. Field had previously won Academy Awards for best actress for her performances in Norma Rae (1979) and Places in the Heart (1984).

Lincoln was nominated for best picture of the year, but the prize went to the thriller Argo, which was produced, directed, and starred in by Ben Affleck. In 1998, Affleck shared an Academy Award with Matt Damon for their original screenplay for the drama Good Will Hunting. Argo, which was co-produced by actor George Clooney, tells the story of how in 1980 the Central Intelligence Agency, with the help of a Canadian diplomat, rescued a group of Americans from Iran after they had escaped from Iranian protesters who were taking over the United States embassy in Tehran.

Ang Lee (right), a Taiwanese-born motion-picture director, won the 2013 Academy Award for best director for “Life of Pi.” “Argo,” a movie co-produced by American actor George Clooney (left), won the best picture award. (AP/Wide World)

Affleck was not nominated for best director. Ang Lee won the directing award for Life of Pi. The film was based on a fantasy novel about a boy stranded in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger. In total, Life of Pi won four Oscars, more than any other film this year. The award was Lee’s second directing Oscar. The Taiwanese-born director won previously for Brokeback Mountain in 2006.

Jennifer Lawrence won the Academy Award for best actress for her role as a troubled young women in the film romance Silver Linings Playbook. Anne Hathaway won the best supporting actress award for her role as Fantine, a woman broken by poverty and human cruelty, in the movie musical Les Miserables. Christoph Waltz won the best supporting actor award for playing a German bounty hunter in Quentin Tarantino’s slave revenge movie Django Unchained. The Austrian actor previously won an Oscar playing a Nazi in another Tarantino film, Inglorious Basterds, in 2010.

Additional World Book articles:

• Motion pictures
• Iran 1980 (a Back in Time article)