Our news alerts for Shakespeare feature frequent updates about productions around the world, but from time to time, they include other Shakespeare news—most recently about the Folio, from auctions of rare copies to groundbreaking research to new exhibitions. ICYMI we’re sharing several recent stories that caught our eye.
A complete set of Shakespeare’s four Folios could sell for $6 million
In the 17th century, Shakespeare’s plays were preserved for posterity in the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Folios. Now, all four volumes are being auctioned as a set by Sotheby’s in London on May 23. Per Sotheby’s, complete sets of the Folios have become increasingly rare.
Read the Smithsonian Magazine story
A new discovery’ about a charred Shakespeare Folio
Folger audiences may remember seeing the burned remains of a Shakespeare Folio sealed in a glass case in our 2011 exhibition, Fame, Fortune, and Theft: The First Folio of Shakespeare.
Part of the University of Pennsylvania Libraries collection, the Folio once belonged to Edwin Forrest, the great 19th-century Shakespearean actor and Philadelphia native. In an essay about “archival discovery” for Shakespeare Quarterly, Penn professors Zachary Lesser and Whitney Trettien write that there’s still more to learn about the Forrest copy of the Folio—namely, that the ashes are not of a First Folio but of an even rarer Third Folio.
Learn more about Forrest Folio discoveries
Durham University shares secrets of stolen First Folio
The Durham edition of the First Folio was stolen from Cosin’s Library in 1998. It reappeared 10 years later at the Folger, badly damaged, with its cover and some pages missing. The book was returned to Durham in 2010, but the story doesn’t end there.
“The vandalism it sustained left it extremely vulnerable,” Stuart Hunt, director of university library and collections and University Librarian, told the BBC. “But with this comes an opportunity to closely examine an iconic object in new ways and discover more about Shakespeare’s world and legacy,” including centuries-old doodles and other hidden secrets.
Shakespeare Recovered—on view at Palace Green Library through November 2—reveals the cutting-edge analysis and conservation work undertaken to explore and protect the cultural masterpiece which is on exhibit for the first time in over a decade.
Read the BBC article on the Durham Folio exhibition
See the Folger First Folios
Shakespeare First Folio
The First Folio is the first published collection of Shakespeare’s plays, produced seven years after his death. Learn more about this book and see inside.
Our Shakespeare Exhibition
See the books that gave us Shakespeare, experience the man and his plays, and learn about the complexities of his cultural legacy. Don’t miss the First Folios and the printing press.
About the Folger First Folios
The Folger has 82 First Folios of Shakespeare, the largest collection in the world. Explore research, discoveries, and the stories behind the books.
Keep exploring
Publishing Shakespeare's First Folio, with Chris Laoutaris
Chris Laoutaris talks with our podcast about Shakespeare’s Book: The Story Behind the First Folio and the Making of Shakespeare, which re-examines everything we thought we knew about the publication of the First Folio.
400 Years of Shakespeare's First Folio, with Emma Smith
Emma Smith of Oxford University tells us what the First Folio has been up to since it was published 400 years ago.
The Astor Place Riot
May 10 is the anniversary of the Astor Place Riot: the night in 1849 when fans of American actor Edwin Forrest rioted inside and outside New York’s Astor Place Opera House during a performance of Macbeth by Forrest’s rival, the British actor William Charles Macready.
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