What happened to William Shakespeare's personal library?

For 400 years, academics, bibliophiles and cryptographers have been searching for the answer.

They've explored cemeteries, palaces, riverbeds and sheep pens looking for a trace of the Bard of Avon's manuscripts.

This enduring literary enigma feeds into the question of Shakespeare's authorship: the argument that someone else wrote his plays.

Sorry, this audio has expired Searching for Shakespeare's Library

"A lot of the case for the so-called secret author theories are based on the absence of the library," says author and historian Stuart Kells.

"They say, well, an author of Shakespeare's calibre had to leave behind this magnificent library and manuscripts and diaries.

"But where are all the letters? Where are all the copies inscribed, you know, 'this is William's copy'?"

Kells is among those labouring to solve the mystery.

"I feel like I've kind of got to know Shakespeare a little bit through the process," he says.

'There was a fire' involved

His search has led him up the cobbled streets of Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon.

Shakespeare's house at Stratford-Upon-Avon ( ABC News: Kathleen Dyett )

"It's definitely out there," Kells says, citing a lone reference to a "study of books" in the playwright's home.

It's possible, he says, that Shakespeare's books were dispersed at the time of his death.

"There's all sorts of interesting hints," Kells says.

"Some of them, we think, did pass through his daughter and her husband and their daughter."

Stuart Kells's new book, Shakespeare's Library, finds him travelling back in time to the Elizabethan era. ( Supplied: Sarah Walker )

The late English playwright and poet Ben Jonson may also play a role in the mystery.

Jonson was involved in the production of the First Folio, an important early edition of Shakespeare's plays.

"The year that he was helping to work on the First Folio there was a fire in Jonson's own library," Kells says.

"It's interesting that we have books from Jonson — and he was a bibliophile, he had multiple libraries and he inscribed his books — but none of the Shakespeariana in Jonson's library has survived."

So, was Shakespeare's personal library lost in Jonson's house fire? Possibly.

Another theory involves a bonfire.

In the 18th century, author Samuel Ireland and his son became one of the first families to go to Stratford-upon-Avon in search of Shakespeare's manuscripts.

"There's this wonderful moment where this local tour guide takes them to [a] farmhouse … and they say; 'we've heard that you might have some manuscripts'," Kells says.

"The farmer says, 'what a disaster, only a few days ago I actually made a raging bonfire of these bundles tied up in string that had William Shakespeare's name on them. I had to clear them out, because I was making a space because I wanted to raise some partridges'.

"His wife says, 'I told you not to burn those papers'.

"So there's that moment where they have this colossal letdown in Stratford."

Uncovering Shakespeare's personal library would be a conservator's dream. ( Getty: Graeme Robertson )

When they got back to London, Kells says, Ireland sent his son out to find Shakespearean documents.

The son returned with amazing letters, diaries and association copies of Shakespeare.

It was the sensation of London — everyone believed it was the real thing.

Unfortunately, though, they all turned out to be forgeries.

'Time is a destroyer of books'



William Shakespeare only became a literary figure after his death ( Getty: Oli Scarff )

Kells says one reason the library has been lost is because Shakespeare wasn't really a literary figure in his own time.

"The idea of a literary Shakespeare and this inspired author was really created in the 18th and 19th centuries," he says.

"In his time, he was a workaday dramatist, he had a bunch of other things on the go, he was investing in theatres."

Gaining respectability of plays was a battle that went well into the 17th century.

"Then obviously also you had the puritans in the 17th century who saw this stuff as absolutely awful," Kells says.

"All the things that have survived to today have been through this incredible process of survival.

"Time is a destroyer of books, so these things were being thrown out, they were being torn up, they were being burned and they were being used as food wrapping.

"But it seems like there are even whole editions of Shakespeare's plays that existed in his lifetime that have been entirely lost.

"So not only do we not have his library, but we don't even have some of these early editions."

But Kells, who is based in Melbourne, isn't giving up just yet.

"Things are turning up every now and then, little fragments and little hints and things," he says.

"But for every real document that turns up there's probably 25 forgeries and fake letters and fake association copies.

"The hope is that things will be found."