Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Three Modern Satirists | 1965 | Stephen Greenblatt | Buy |
| 2 | Will in the World | 2004 | Stephen Greenblatt | Buy |
| 3 | Dark Renaissance | 2025 | Stephen Greenblatt | Buy |
Greenblatt has written three major biographical studies across six decades. His first book, Three Modern Satirists (1965), examined twentieth-century writers, but his reputation rests on his Renaissance biographies. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare (2004) became a bestseller and National Book Award finalist by reconstructing how a glover’s son from Stratford became the greatest playwright in English. Rather than lamenting the sparse documentary evidence about Shakespeare’s life, Greenblatt reads the plays and poems for clues about the experiences that shaped them.
His 2025 book Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival applies the same method to Christopher Marlowe, the playwright who paved the way for Shakespeare. Marlowe’s short life involved espionage, counterfeiting, accusations of atheism, and a fatal stabbing in a tavern. Greenblatt recreates this world of religious conflict and political intrigue, showing how Marlowe’s reckless genius challenged theatrical conventions and made Shakespeare’s achievements possible.