John Leslie Hotson
Born	August 16, 1897(1897-08-16) Delhi, Ontario
Died	November 16, 1992 (aged 95) North Branford, Connecticut
Education	Harvard University, B.A., M.A. and Ph.D.
Employer	Harvard University Yale University New York University Haverford College (1931-1942)
Known for	Elizabethan literary puzzles
Spouse(s)	Mary May Peabody

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.

[edit] Biography

He was born at Delhi, Ontario on August 16, 1897.^[1][2] 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^[2]; the identity of Mr W H (to whom Shakespeare's sonnets were addressed)^[2]; the shape of the original Shakespearean theater^[2]; 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^[2]; 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."^[2]

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.^[2]

[edit] 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

[edit] Footnotes