Original handwritten school assignment titled “Tales From Shakespeare,” comprising approximately 15 handwritten pages in ink (some double-sided) on ruled 8 x 10.5 sheets) and a full-page ink drawing, signed six times “Alan Shepard” or “Alan B. Shepard,” all clipped into booklet form, no date [early 1930s]. Shepard grew up in the small town of E ast Derry, New Hampshire, and attended the one-room schoolhouse there. The precocious youngster completed six grades in five years before attending high school at Pinkerton Academy in adjacent Derry. Shepard graduated from the Academy in 1940 and proceeded directly to the U.S. Naval Academy and to service in the Second World War. After the war, Shepard continued his education and training at the Navy Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland, the Naval War College, and thence to his history-making career at NASA. Shepard’s report evidently dates from his mid-elementary years in East Derry. The assignment comprises a biographical introduction of the Bard and summaries on The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet. The text is preceded by an ink portrait sketch of Shakespeare by Shepard. Most of the individual chapters are self-contained on both sides of a single sheet, and individually signed, so that the contents could be easily and cleanly “broken.” Accompanied by a letter of provenance from the daughter of the original owner, who was in the employ of the Shepard family for more than 35 years. Wear and chipping to covers (not affecting any of the contents, which, save for mild toning, are clean and bright), otherwise fine condition. R&R COA.
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