Reference Reviews

Reference for Students

Elizabethan World Biographies. By Elizabeth Shostak. 1 vol. 242 p. $63.00.

Students looking in this volume will find William Allen, Francis Bacon, Edmund Campion, William Cecil, John Dee, Catherine de Medici, Robert Devereaux, Francis Drake, Robert Dudley, Elizabeth I, Richard Hakluyt, Bess of Hardwick, Johns Hawkins, Henry VIII, James I, John Knox, Christopher Marlow, Mary I, Grace O'Malley, Phillip II, Walter Raleigh, William Shakespeare, Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, Mary Stuart and Frances Walsingham. Entries begin with birth and death dates and places, their title, and a quotation. The vocabulary is not difficult to read, which should be of use to students less able to read. An inset box discusses the controversy over whether or not Shakespeare actually authored his plays. This will be a good beginning for further research on the persons here.