Page "Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship" Paragraph 9

After a period of decline of the Oxfordian theory beginning with World War II, in 1952 Charlton Ogburn and his wife Dorothy published the 1, 300-page This Star of England, which briefly revived Oxfordism.

A series of critical academic books and articles, however, held in check any appreciable growth of anti-Stratfordism and Oxfordism, most notably The Shakespeare Ciphers Examined ( 1957 ), by William and Elizebeth Friedman, The Poacher from Stratford ( 1958 ), by Frank Wadsworth, Shakespeare and His Betters ( 1958 ), by Reginald Churchill, The Shakespeare Claimants ( 1962 ), by H. N. Gibson, and Shakespeare and His Rivals: A Casebook on the Authorship Controversy ( 1962 ), by George L. McMichael and Edgar M. Glenn.

By 1968 the newsletter of The Shakespeare Oxford Society reported that " the missionary or evangelical spirit of most of our members seems to be at a low ebb, dormant, or non-existent ".

In 1974, membership in the society stood at 80.

In 1979, the publication of an analysis of The Ashbourne portrait dealt a further blow to the movement.

The painting, long claimed to be one of the portraits of Shakespeare, but considered by Barrell to be an overpaint of a portrait of the Earl of Oxford, turned out to represent neither, but rather depicted Hugh Hamersley.