 listening library presents who was William Shakespeare my Celeste Davidson Manus read for you by Kevin Parasau who was William Shakespeare William Shakespeare you probably know his name even if you haven't read anything by him yet he lived 450 years ago wrote at least 35 plays and more than 150 poems many people think Shakespeare is the greatest playwright who ever lived everything Shakespeare wrote has been translated into dozens of languages from Spanish to Japanese to Swahili people all over the world still watch performances of his plays movies and Broadway musicals have been based on many of them such as Romeo and Juliet Macbeth and Hamlet hundreds of words and phrases we use every day were invented by him words like cold-blooded quarrelsome and love his language ideas and stories are all around us although William Shakespeare is very famous we don't know a lot about him much of his personal life remains a mystery back in the 1500s not many records were kept for the average person we know Shakespeare began his life as the son of a glovemaker in the small town of Stratford upon Avon he ended it as a rich and famous London playwright but what happened in between we know when he married and when he had children we know he didn't live with his family for many years instead he went to London where he became an actor playwright and a director of plays he built and bought theaters he wrote an