The greatest cultural mystery in the Western World is, "Who wrote the superb plays and sonnets published under the pen name of William Shakespeare?" Conventional wisdom, so often proved wrong as cultures evolve, currently favors William Shakspere of Stratford-on-Avon--a butcher's apprentice, grain speculator and real estate investor who never went to school, never owned a book, never traveled abroad, knew no foreign languages and never wrote anything except his crudely scrawled signature. Because of the raptorian grip of guild mythology and the threat of professional punishment, professors of English cling tenaciously to their Stratford Man, refusing to believe any data in favor of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Avalanche of Falsity documents impressive discoveries in favor of de Vere and describes the questionable methods professors use as they try desperately to counteract massive accumulating evidence against their illiterate candidate.