Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1942-43
• Where—Stratford, Connecticut, USA
• Education—High school degree
• Currently—lives in Stratford, Connecticut
Bob Smith is the American author of Hamlet's Dresser (2002), his memoir centering on his troubled family caring for a severely retarded sister. At the age of 10, Smith found solace in reading Shakespeare and by 16 began working in the summer months as a dresser for the American Shakespeare Festival in his hometown of Stratford, Connecticut.
Smith memorized lines from Shakespeare's plays and sonnets and was considered somewhat of an expert among his theatrical associates, including actors who would come to him for coaching. Eventually, however, Smith became a painter, making a living off the sales of his art.
Then, at the urging of his friends and associates, he turned from painting to teaching his beloved Shakespeare. Though he never went to college, Smith taught graduate and undergraduate students at Temple University and the State University of New York at Purchase. By the 1990s he decided to follow his other passion—working with the elderly at The Y at 92nd Street and The Stein Senior Center. Over the years hundreds of students, of varying ages, attended his classes, and it was a 1996 article about him in The New York Times that led to his contract with Scribner for Hamlet's Dresser.
Writing the memoir prompted Smith to close up his Booklyn Heights apartment and move back to his hometown of Statford to better immerse himself in memories. (Adapted from the New York Times.)