The Re-Attribution of the British Renaissance Corpus

The first accurate quantitative re-attribution of all central texts of the British Renaissance.

• Describes and applies the first unbiased and accurate method of computational-linguistics authorial-attribution.
• Covers 284 texts with 7,832,156 words, 104 authorial bylines, a range of genres, and a timespan between 1560 and 1662.
• Includes helpful diagrams that visually show the quantitative-matches and the identical most-frequent phrases between the texts in each linguistic-signature-group.
• Detailed chronologies for each of the six ghostwriters and the bylines they wrote under, including their dates of birth, death, publications, and other biographical markers that explain why each of them was the only logical attribution.
• A full bibliography of the 284 tested texts.
• All of the raw and processed data, not only in summary-tables inside of the book, but also in-full on a publicly-accessible website: https://github.com/faktorovich/Attribution.
• One table includes all of the data from the first-edition title-pages (byline, printer, bookseller, date, proverbs), and the first-performance (date, troupe).
• A table on structural elements across all “Shakespeare”-bylined texts summarizes their plot-movements, character-types, settings, slang-usage, primary sources, and poetic design (percentage of rhyme and hendiadys).
• To explain why these are the first truly accurate re-attributions, numerous reasons for discrediting previous attribution claims are provided throughout.

Re-Attribution of the British Renaissance Corpus describes a newly invented for this study computational-linguistics authorial-attribution method and applies it and several other approaches to the central texts of the British Renaissance. All of the attribution steps are described precisely to give readers replicable instructions on how they can apply them to any text from any period that they are interested in determining an attribution for. This method can be applied to solving criminal linguistic mysteries such as who wrote the Unabomber Manifesto, or theological mysteries such as if any of the Dead Sea Scrolls might have been forged by a modern author. This method is uniquely accurate because it uses 27 different quantitative tests that measure a text’s dimensions and its similarity or divergence to other texts automatically, without the statisticians being able to skew the outcome by altering the experiment’s analytical design. Re-Attribution guides researchers not only on how to perform the basic calculations, but also how to perform the biographical and documentary research to derive who among the potential bylines in a single signature-group is the ghostwriter, while the others are merely ghostwriter-contractors or pseudonyms. Reliable accuracy is achieved by also performing other types of attribution tests to check if these alternative approaches validate or contradict the 27-tests’ findings. Non-quantitative tests discussed include deciphering the hidden implications of contemporary pufferies, as well as comparing structural elements such as characters, plot, and element borrowings. Part II presents a revised version of the history of the birth of the theater in Britain by reviewing forensic accounting evidence in Philip Henslowe’s Diary, and the documented history of homicidal lending practices and government corruption connected with troupes and theaters. Parts III-VIII explain precisely how this series derived that the British Renaissance was ghostwritten by only six linguistic-signatures: Richard Verstegan, Josuah Sylvester, Gabriel Harvey, Benjamin Jonson, William Byrd and William Percy. The parts on each of these ghostwriters, not only explain how their biographies fit with the timelines of the texts being attributed to them, but also provide various types of evidence that explains their motives for ghostwriting. And Part IX returns for an intricate analysis of a few pseudonyms or ghostwriting-contractors who were uniquely difficult to exclude as potential ghostwriters; in parallel, these chapters question the reasons these individuals would have needed to purchase ghostwriting services.

Softcover: Volumes 1-2: 698pp, 7X10”: $40: 979-8-49958-765-2; Hardcover: Volume 1: $27: 979-8-49958-864-2; Hardcover: Volume 2: $27: 9798499590843; Kindle EBook: $9.99; LCCN: 2021949415. Nonfiction—Computers—Mathematical & Statistical Software. Release: October 23, 2021. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09K1XKKX9

The first 14 volumes of the British Renaissance Re-Attribution and Modernization Series have been released. Volumes 1-2 describe the computational-linguistic authorial-attribution method I used to re-attributed 284 texts from the British Renaissance, and provide other types of proof to support these re-assignments. Volumes 3-14 present never-before modernized to be readable dramas, poetry and historical sources with annotations, introductions, and visuals that explain these texts and their re-attributions. The author/translator, Anna Faktorovich, is available for interviews or to write articles about this project similar to those already posted on this project’s main website: https://anaphoraliterary.com/attribution.

Anaphora Literary Press
1108 W 3rd Street, Quanah, TX 79252
470-289-6395
director@anaphoraliterary.com
Anna Faktorovich, PhD, Director

Anaphora Literary Press was started as an academic press with the publication of the Pennsylvania Literary Journal (PLJ) in 2009. In the Winter of 2010, Anaphora began accepting book-length submissions. Anaphora has now published over 300 creative and non-fiction books. Yermiyahu Ahron Taub’s novel Beloved Comrades won Second Place/Silver of the 2021 CIPA EVVY Award in the category of LGBTQ Fiction from the Colorado Independent Publishers Association. Bob Van Laerhoven’s short stories collection, Heart Fever, became the Finalist for the 2018 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award. Jere Krakoff’s novel, Something is Rotten in Fettig, was a finalist in the 2016 Foreword Indies: Humor (Adult Fiction) competition. John Paul Jaramillo’s collection of short stories, The House of Order, received an honorable mention in Latino Literacy Now’s Mariposa Best First Fiction Book Award. Professors have used Anaphora’s books in their courses. Most Anaphora writers schedule readings, and several have booked top venues like Barnes and Nobles, AWP, and major libraries. Stories about Anaphora’s books have been featured in newspapers and magazines (including reviews in Publishers Weekly and Library Journal) and on major network broadcasts across the world (NPR/ Fox). PLJ and CCR have published interviews with best-selling and award-winning writers such as Geraldine Brooks and Larry Niven, as well as interviews with the winners of the Sundance and Brooklyn Film festivals. Anaphora has exhibited its titles at SIBA, ALA, SAMLA and many other international conventions. Services include book trailers, press releases, merchandise design, book review (free in pdf/epub) submissions, proofreading, formatting, design, LCCN/ISBN assignment, international distribution, art creation, ebook (Kindle, EBSCO, ProQuest)/ softcover/ hardcover editions, and dozens of other components included in the basic package.

This release was published on openPR.