Newman teaches in the English Department of the State University of New York at Stony Brook. In this essay, Newman examines Greenblatt's process of inference, or educated guesswork, in Will in the World.

At the beginning of his "Preface" to Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare, Stephen Greenblatt summarizes William Shakespeare's rise from obscurity to become a playwright of almost supernatural range and ability, whose work has the power to transport all kinds of audiences, not only of his generation but of every generation that followed. "How is an achievement of this magnitude to be explained? How did Shakespeare become Shakespeare?" The first Shakespeare in Greenblatt's question is the man born into anonymity, the son of a glove maker in a provincial town. The second Shakespeare is less a person than a larger-than-life entity, whose mention automatically brings to mind the idea of great literature...