John Leslie Hotson

John Leslie Hotson, also known as J. Leslie Hotson or Leslie Hotson (August 16, 1897 - 16 November 1992) was a scholar of Elizabethan literary puzzles.

Biography

He was born at Delhi, Ontario on August 16, 1897. [Social Security Death Index] cite news | last = Saxon| first = Wolfgang| title = Dr. John Hotson, 95, Unraveler Of Elizabethan Literary Puzzles | pages = | language = | publisher = New York Times | date = November 20, 1992 | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE2DC133CF933A15752C1A964958260 | quote=Dr. John Leslie Hotson, a prolific Elizabethan scholar whose sleuthing in dusty record depositories shed light on some old literary puzzles, died on Monday at his home in North Branford, Conn. He was 95 years old. | accessdate = 2008-05-07] Cracked many, especially, Elizabethan literary puzzles - e.g. the murderer of Thomas of Woodstock (decoding Chaucer's Nunne's Priest's Tale); the murderer of Christopher Marlowe; the identity of Mr W H (to whom Shakespeare's sonnets were addressed); the shape of the original Shakespearean theater; and identified a miniature colour portrait by Hilliard of Shakespeare as a young man. He also unearthed the letters that Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote to his divorced wife Harriet; produced evidence of Shakespeare's father as a wool dealer; illuminated Shakespeare's early years in Stratford-on-Avon; and identified the killer of Henry Porter (a minor Elizabethan dramatist).

As the New York Times stated in his obituary: "But it was chiefly as a Shakespearian detective that Dr Hotson remained in the public eye, sometimes to the annoyance of rival scholars who discounted his theories." His first major work, "The Death of Christopher Marlowe" — which made his name — is still in print. He stumbled across the evidence while decoding Chaucer's Nunne's Priest's Tale in the archives of the English Public Records Office in 1923-1924 — published in 1923 — Colfox vs Chauntecleer.

He died on 16 November 1992 in North Branford, Connecticut.

Life Summary

* Pacifist - served with Friends (Quaker) Relief Unit in France, 1918-1919
* Educated at Harvard (BA, MA, PhD) and Yale
* Married 1919, Mary May Peabody
* Fulbright Exchange Scholar at Bedford College, London
* Taught at Harvard, Yale (Research Associate) and New York University
* Guggenheim Fellow 1929 and 1930 in 16th and 17th Century English Literature
* Taught at Haverford College (1931-42)
* Second War - Officer in Signal Corps
* Fellow of King's College, Cambridge (England), 1954-60.
* He is the author of many books of literary biography, criticism and detection, such as:
** "Colfox vs Chauntecleer" 1924 PMLA XXXIX
** "The Death of Christopher" Marlowe 1925
** "The Commonwealth and Restoration" Stage 1929
** "Shakespeare versus Shallow" 1931
** "The Adventure of a Single Rapier" 1931
** "I, William Shakespeare"
** "Shakespeare's Sonnets Dated"
** "Shakespeare's Motley"
** "The First Night of Twelfth Night", 1954
** "Shakespeare's Wooden O", 1959
** "Mr WH", 1964
** "Shakespeare by Hilliard", 1977

Footnotes