Shakespeare

Not too long ago I read Will in the World, which is a (very well-) hypothesized biography of Shakespeare as we generally acknowledge him to be, i.e. the man from Stratford-on-Avon, etc. I read some other stuff in between (Corelli's Mandolin, recommended if you like Marquez; Tuck Everlasting; Island of the Blue Dolphins, good for a bit of nostalgia), and now I've just started Shakespeare by another Name, which is essentially a biography arguing that "Shakespeare" the author was actually Edward de Vere, [Seventeenth] Earl of Oxford.
So far I've only read the introduction and maybe half of the first chapter, but I'm already blown away by the difference in these two ideas. I don't think the author of the de Vere bio is specifically targeting the work done in Will in the World, necessarily, but he's already blown so many holes in the typical idea of Will Shakespeare that I'm already finding it difficult to believe that "Shakespeare" was a reasonably uneducated, middle-class actor from the country. Honestly, if you look at it that way, it sounds downright silly.
More will be said on this subject when I'm a little further in. Expect at least a book report, and at most a full-blown essay comparing the two theories. Whee, fun.