Bob Smith grew up in a town named for Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford, Connecticut. His troubled childhood was spent in a struggle to help his devastated parents care for his severely retarded sister. But at age ten, Smith stumbled onto a line from The Merchant of Venice : "In sooth I know not why I am so sad." In the language of Shakespeare, he had found a window through which to view the world.

When he was a teenager, the American Shakespeare Festival moved into Stratford, and Smith became Hamlet's dresser. As he watched the plays from backstage, his life's passion took shape. Here, in tender and lyrical prose, Smith tells the story of a life shaped by poetry.

" This is a magnificent book ."—Neil Simon, playwright

" A masterpiece ." —Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes

A Wall Street Journal "Editor's Pick" and Barnes and Noble "Original Voice"