From Luminarium, an online anthology of English literature from medieval times through the early seventeenth century, this site provides useful background information about Marlowe's life and works.

The Marlowe Society of America
http://www.sla.purdue.edu/academic/engl/marlowesoc/

The Marlowe Society of America is a nonprofit organization that serves as a forum for exchange of information between scholars, critics, and others who are studying Marlowe's writings, life, and times.

Books by Christopher Marlowe
http://sailor.gutenberg.org/by-author/ma15.html

Project Gutenberg offers electronic texts for Doctor Faustus, The Jew of Malta, Tamburlaine, and more.

BIOGRAPHY
Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) was born two months before William Shakespeare and in somewhat similar social circumstances. Marlowe's father was a shoemaker; Shakespeare's a glovemaker. But unlike Shakespeare, Marlowe won a scholarship to Cambridge, where he remained six years and began his career as a playwright. His first play, Tamburlaine, was finished before he left the university. When it was performed in London, it had the benefit of Edward Alleyn, the finest actor of his time, playing the title role.

Marlowe's university scholarship was intended for those studying for the ministry, but instead of entering the ministry, he went to London in 1587. Some of his friends revealed that his beliefs were close to those of atheism, a charge that in his time could have resulted in death. Fortunately, when he applied for his master's degree and was on the verge of having it denied, Queen Elizabeth intervened on his behalf. Her involvement has made subsequent generations think that he must have been a spy on her behalf during at least some of the time he was in Catholic sections of France.

Marlowe's first play was Tamburlaine (1587; in two parts), followed by The Jew of Malta (1589) and Edward the Second (1592). They are all powerful plays that feature a great tragic character. The Massacre at Paris (1593) is based on the St. Bartholomew Day's Massacre in 1573, when some thirty thousand Huguenots—French Protestants—were killed by Catholics in Paris. Marlowe's knowledge of the details of the events seems to have been considerable, although the play itself is not as powerful as his earlier tragedies. Dido, Queen of Carthage (1593; with Thomas Nashe) is a typical kind of collaboration of the period. None of these plays, good as they are, come to the level of Doctor Faustus, which stands as one of the greatest plays of the Elizabethan age.

Apparently quick to anger, Marlowe was involved in one murder before he himself was murdered over a bar bill at the inn of the Widow Bull in Deptford. He was drinking with an acquaintance, Ingram Frizer, who worked for the great Walsingham family, a patron of Marlowe's. During an argument Marlowe grabbed Frizer from behind, but Frizer broke free and stabbed Marlowe, who died instantly. At the time of Marlowe's death Shakespeare was just beginning his career as a playwright.