From the age of seven to about 14, he attended Stratford Grammar School receiving an excellent well rounded education. At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway, who was seven years his senior and three months pregnant. She was of 'yeoman' stock - her family owned a farm one mile west of Stratford in Shottery. He endured her until he could stand it no longer and fled to London to become an actor.  

He then became actor-manager and part-owner in the Blackfriars and afterwards the Globe Theatres. He was a first-rate actor, but it is as a writer of plays that he has achieved lasting world-wide fame. His plays are thought to be the finest ever written in any language. His 37 plays vary in type; historical romances, light, fantastic comedies, some are tragedies, all including the comical and the farcical. He was a shrewd business man, amassing quite a fortune in his time.  

He returned to Stratford for his latter years where he died at the age of 52 and now lies at rest in his special grave at Holy Trinity Church.

William Shakespeare and Stratford-upon-Avon Reference Material Available:

On the Internet
Shakespeare Resources on the Internet
A Shakespeare book listing

Shakespeare Resources

Guide to Online Schools 

Publications

Here are a number of publication's from The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in association with Sutton Publishing Limited

Shakespeare in the Stratford Records, Robert Bearman, 1994
ISBN 0-7509-0632-4

John Hall and his Patients: The Medical Practice of Shakepeare's Son-in-Law, Joan Lane, 1996
ISBN 0-7509-1095-X

The Civil War in Stratford-upon-Avon: Conflict and Community in South Warwickshire 1642-1646, Philip Tennant, 1996
ISBN 0-7509-1089-5

Family Life in Shakespeare's England: Stratford-upon-Avon 1570-1630, Jeanne Jones, 1996
ISBN 0-7509-1261-8

The History of an English Borough: Stratford-upon-Avon 1196-1996, Robert Bearman, ed., 1997