The incredible and true story told in author Doug Stewart's book, "The Boy Who Would Be Shakespeare: A Tale of Forgery and Folly," fascinated the crowd assembled to hear Stewart's talk at Cary Memorial Library Thursday night.

Stewart, a Lexington native who now resides in Ipswich, told the story of William Henry Ireland's Shakespearean feats.

Samuel Ireland didn't think much of his teenage son, William Henry Ireland. In fact, he paid a friend to let the boy volunteer at a law firm. It was probably not his best idea. Old Sam had no idea William would sit in the empty offices honing what became exemplary forgery skills.

Like his father, 18th-century society and the masses also fell prey to William's unprecedented skills. The 19-year-old, who studied Shakespeare in school, began doodling with the handwriting popular a few hundred years earlier. Since there were only a few of the Bard's signatures, young Ireland had only to learn that – and a local author said he could write it with his eyes closed. The rest of his forgeries were pure imagination – and the 19-year-old had more than enough to spare.

His father, a collector, coveted his friend's Shakespearean signature. So, when William Henry came home with a one-page letter from the dead author his father didn't praise the son he denigrated. Instead he asked for more. Young William Henry was more than happy to comply and started churning out copy on a regular basis.

Samuel, thrilled with his newfound treasure, began showing the papers to friends and collectors. That's when the controversy started. Most of society wanted to believe the aged, crumpled and worn papers were actually from Shakespeare. People craved anything Shakespearean and the public seemed to devour this newly found treasure.

Encouraged, William Henry wrote a play. Enter Richard Brinsley Sheridan, owner of Drury Lane Theater. He decided to get himself out of debt by staging Shakespeare's unearthed play.

Want to find out what happened next? The answer is in Stewart's book.

Last night, Stewart told the audience most of the story – considered one of the world's most incredible hoaxes – but he left everyone hanging at Drury Lane Theater. The success or failure of the play, the book Samuel printed, containing all the forged documents and the remainder of the young man's life, remain hidden in Stewart's pages. He didn't want to ruin the ending for those reading the book.

Stewart did say that William Henry finally wrote three confessions. The first no one believed, people were so desperate for Shakespearean artifacts. Apparently the other two did the trick

Stewart also told the audience that the main meeting room where his talk was being held was formerly the library's children's room, where, at 8-years-old, he wrote his first report and started his literary career. Since then Stewart has written 70 articles for Smithsonian Magazine, and ghostwritten a host of other books. It was a fitting place for the talk.

Stewart graduated from Lexington High School in 1967, and finished at Harvard in 1971. He worked in publishing until the mid-1980s before he started writing for magazines. 

A Smithsonian story on whether Shakespeare was or was not the author of the plays and sonnets was the seed that gave him the idea for the book, he said.

"Most of my research for the fake-Shakespeare book was done in the United States," Stewart wrote via email later. "Harvard's rare-books library is one of the major repositories of documents about the Ireland forgeries."

Stewart made one trip to London to visit the British Library's Manuscripts Room and the various London sites in London in the story. Within a year he finished the book. Although it is a true story and documents the events, it reads as a novel.

It's anything but. Shakespeare fans may want to get the book from the library – or better yet – support Stewart and buy the book.