1 William Shakespeare

At the age of one, William Shakespeare was lucky to be alive. After he was born,a deadly disease came to England.It was called the plague. It killed thousands of people. But William Shakespeare lived.

Shakespeare grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. He went to school nine hours a day, six days a week. In 1582, at age 18, he married Anne Hathaway, a farmer's daughter. She was eight years older than he was. Their first child was a daughter. Later they had twins. In 1585, Shakespeare left Stratford-upon-Avon. His wife and children stayed behind. No one knows why he left or what he did between 1585 and 1592.

In 1592, Shakespeare lived in London. He rented rooms or lived with friends.He visited his wife and family once a year.Shakespeare became an actor, and he also wrote plays. He usually acted in his own plays. Some of his most famous plays were Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth. He wrote 37 plays in all. They are still popular today.

Then the plague came again. Many people died. The theaters closed for two years. Shakespeare could not write plays, so he wrote poems. When the theaters opened, Shakespeare wrote plays again. Shakespeare had a theater group. It was the most successful group of that time. Shakespeare earned almost no money from his writing. But he made a lot of money from acting. With this money he bought a large house in Stratford-upon-Avon for his family. He was friendly with the richest people in town. He was a gentleman—a man of high class who didn't have to work.

At age 49,Shakespeare retired and went to live in Stratford-upon-Avon.He died at 52.He left his money to his family.He left his genius to the world.