author
John Denham Parsons
1861–1936
Best remembered for challenging accepted ideas, this English writer explored both religious symbolism and the long-running debate over who wrote Shakespeare’s plays. His books are curious, argumentative, and full of the independent spirit that made him a distinctive late Victorian and early 20th-century voice.
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About the author
John Denham Parsons was an English writer who lived from 1861 to 1936. Reliable reference sources describe him as a Shakespeare authorship theorist as well as a writer with wide-ranging interests, especially in religion, symbolism, and historical controversy.
His best-known book now easily found by modern readers is The Non-Christian Cross (1896), a study of the cross as a symbol and its history before and beyond Christianity. Library and public-domain records also show another notable work, Our Sun-God; or, Christianity Before Christ, which points to his interest in comparative religion and skeptical inquiry.
Later in life, Parsons became closely associated with the Baconian side of the Shakespeare authorship debate. Catalog and reference records connect him with works such as Author Bacon and Boycotted Shakespeare Facts, showing how strongly he argued against the traditional view of Shakespeare’s authorship. No suitable verified portrait image was confirmed from the sources reviewed, so none is included here.