Leslie Hotson

John Leslie Hotson (16 August 1897 – 16 November 1992) was a scholar of Elizabethan literary puzzles.

Biography He was born at Delhi, Ontario, on 16 August 1897. He studied at Harvard University, where he obtained an AB., M.A. and Ph.D. He went on to hold a number of academic posts.

Hotson was known for his tenacious archival research and his interest in coded information. He had a number of notable successes, but not all of his "decodings" have been accepted by other scholars. He discovered the identity of Ingram Frizer, the killer of Christopher Marlowe, — which made his name — is still in print. He stumbled across the evidence while decoding Chaucer's Nun's Priest's Tale in the archives of the English Public Records Office in 1923–24.

He died on 16 November 1992 in North Branford, Connecticut.

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

Footnotes