The Shakespearean Cipher
Zachary Michael Jack · Cornell University Press eBooks · 2024
This chapter details Ignatius Donnelly's political and literary activities during the 1882 election season. Despite Donnelly's controversial views in Atlantis and Ragnarok, which many experts dismissed as pseudoscience, he gained a following among readers who favored alternative truths. The chapter recounts Donnelly's brief return to politics that autumn, delivering speeches for A. A. Ames and opposing William Washburn. Donnelly also attracted attention for his claim to have discovered a cipher in the Shakespearean plays, which he argued proved that Francis Bacon, not William Shakespeare, was their true author. The chapter covers how Donnelly garnered significant support from the Farmers' Alliance while running on a populist platform, ultimately securing a victory in the 1886 election.