William Edward Farina (born December 7, 1955 in

LaPorte, Indiana La Porte (French for "The Door") is a city in LaPorte County, Indiana, United States, of which it is the county seat. Its population was estimated to be 21,341 in 2022. It is one of the two principal cities of the Michigan City-La Porte, India ...

) is an American essayist and writer of popular non-fiction.

Biography

Farina was born, reared and educated in

. He attended

Valparaiso University Valparaiso University (Valpo) is a private university in Valparaiso, Indiana. It is a Lutheran university with about 3,000 students from over 50 countries on a campus of . Originally named Valparaiso Male and Female College, Valparaiso Universit ...

on a baseball athletic scholarship and received his bachelor's degree with a double major in English and Philosophy in 1978, then a J.D. degree from the same institution in 1981. That same year he was admitted to the Illinois bar and moved to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, pursuing a full-time career as a real estate analyst that had previously begun in college. In 1989, he was awarded designated membership with the American Institute of Real Estate Appraisers (today the

Appraisal Institute The Appraisal Institute (AI), headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, is an international association of professional real estate appraisers. It was founded in January 1991 when the American Institute of Real Estate Appraisers (AIREA) and the Society ...

). The following year (1990), Farina was presented with a certificate of merit from

Landmarks Illinois The Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois – also known as Landmarks Illinois – is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1971 to prevent the demolition of the Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan designed Chicago Stock Exchange Building. A ...

for his efforts in the field of historic building preservation. Soon afterwards in 1991, he married Marion Buckley of Decatur, Illinois, who helped to rekindle his interest in writing. Then in 2002, he accepted invitational membership with Lambda Alpha International, an honorary land economics society. Farina and his wife participated as volunteers for the 2008 general election campaign in his native state of

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. Soon after this in 2009, they moved to northern

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, where they spent the next six years serving in various government-related capacities, before moving back to the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

area (

Evanston, Illinois Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, ...

) in 2015, where they live and work today. Broad contrasts in ethnic and cultural identities frequently characterize his writing style.

Writing career

Spurred by the results of the 2004 elections, Farina resolved to devote spare time to educational activities. Foremost among these has been a series of books on various scholarly topics, written from a layman's perspective. Farina's first collection, "De Vere as Shakespeare: An Oxfordian Reading of the Canon" (McFarland & Company, 2006), addresses the Shakespeare authorship question. It won the 2007 Award for Scholarly Excellence presented by the Shakespeare Authorship Studies Conference of Concordia University-Portland, and earned praise in

Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant uni ...

's Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature. Since then, McFarland has published nine additional works by Farina, with an 11th book to be published in 2022, and a 12th currently under contract for 2023.

Works

''De Vere as Shakespeare: An Oxfordian Reading of the Canon'' (2006)
''Ulysses S. Grant, 1861-1864: His Rise from Obscurity to Military Greatness'' (2007)
''Perpetua of Carthage: Portrait of a Third-Century Martyr'' (2008)
''Chrétien de Troyes and the Dawn of Arthurian Romance'' (2010)
''Eliot Asinof and the Truth of the Game: A Critical Study of the Baseball Writings'' (2011)
''The German Cabaret Legacy in American Popular Music'' (2013)
''Man Writes Dog: Canine Themes in Literature, Law and Folklore'' (2014)
''The Afterlife of Adam Smith: The Influence, Interpretation and Misinterpretation of His Economic Philosophy'' (2015)
''Saint James the Greater in History, Art and Culture'' (2018)
''Italian Crime Fiction in the Era of the Anti-Mafia Movement'' (2020)
''Screening Charles Dickens: A Survey of the Film and Television Adaptations'' (2022 scheduled)

Quotes

"Patient readers will hopefully have as much fun perusing this survey as I had assembling it. Since Smith is rarely read by anyone nowadays, and wrote during an epoch so completely different from our own, specific interpretations of his text and attempts at direct application of his ideas to contemporary problems often become a freewheeling, unaccountable business." ''(The Afterlife of Adam Smith)''

External links

William Farina's official websiteWilliam Farina at McFarland Publishing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farina, William 1955 births Living people American essayists American lawyers American non-fiction writers Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship People from La Porte, Indiana Valparaiso University alumni Shakespeare authorship theorists