Who was Shakespeare?

Usually Shakespeare strikes fear into the heart of students. The dread of reading old English and in iambic pentameter is a daunting task is a feeling that most students share. We haven't learned much about who Shakespeare really is. All I know is that he is an English poet who has written many famous plays. So I checked on wikipedia who really is and this what I came up with. He is an English poet and playwright who has written 38 plays, 154 sonnets and a couple of narratives. He married Anne Hathaway at age 18 and three children. He then began a successful career in London, but died at age 52. His writing is finally starting to become a little bit easier to read. I haven't learned that much about Shakespeare, rather the plays that he has written.