The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World
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The first popular narrative history of Shakespeare’s First Folio, the world’s most obsessively pursued book. One book above all others has transfixed connoisseurs for four centuries—a book sold for shillings in the streets of London, whisked to Manhattan for millions, and stored deep within the vaults of Tokyo. The book: William Shakespeare’s First Folio of 1623. Paul Collins, lover of odd books and author of the national bestseller Sixpence House, takes up the strange quest for this white whale of precious books. Broken down into five acts, each tied to a different location and century, The Book of William’s travelogue follows the trail of the Folio’s curious rise: a dizzying S otheby’s auction on a pristine copy preserved since the seventeenth century, the Fleet Street machinations of the eighteenth century, the nineteenth century quests for lost Folios, obsessive acquisitions by twentieth century oilmen, and the high-tech hoards of twenty-first century Japan. Finally, Collins speculates on Shakespeare’s cross-cultural future as Asian buyers enter their Folios into the electronic ether, and recounts the book’s remarkable journey as it is found in attics, gets lost in oceans and fires, is bought and sold, and ultimately becomes immortal.The Barnes & Noble ReviewIn recent years several authors have taken on the daunting challenge of biographizing Shakespeare. From the scrappy Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt to the highbrow ruminations of Harold Bloom's Shakespeare and the Invention of the Human, books abound that interweave the meagre details of Shakespeare's life with the rich history of his time, seeking ways to account for the eruption of his singular genius. In fact, the motivations of readers and publishers in the fraught era following the Bard's lifetime may have more to tell us about the transmission of that genius and the construction of its legacy. In The Book of William, Paul Collins unclasps the secret book of the First Folio -- the first posthumously-published edition of the Bard's plays and the chief source for his work -- and reads matter deep and dangerous. For this legacy of world literature would have been lost in nature's infinite book of secrecy were it not for the greed of early publishers, the burgeoning enthusiasm of critics and the public, and the tender ministrations of collectors. Collins, a professor and book sleuth in the McSweeney's orbit, follows the fate of the few surviving First Folios from 17th-century printshops to Sotheby's auction room, watching as copies slip through the fingers of robber barons and rare books librarians alike. Scholars have long known the riches to be sought in the material history of books; in the story of the early editions of Shakespeare's works, Collins finds dukedom large enough for the general reader as well. --Matthew Battles
Act IScene i New Bond Street, London 3Scene ii Barbican and Aldersgate, London 9Scene iii St. Paul's Churchyard, London 19Scene iv New Bond Street, London 33Act IIScene i Hampstead Heath, London 59Scene ii Catherine Street, London 72Scene iii 17 Gough Square, London 89Scene iv Staple Inn, High Holborn, London 102Act IIIScene i Charing Cross, London 115Scene ii High Halden, Kent 122Scene iii Kensal Green Cemetery, London 132Act IVScene i East Capitol Street, Washington, D.C. 147Scene ii Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C. 157Scene iii Level C, Folger Shakespeare Library 169Act VScene i The Globe Theatre, Shin-Okubo, Shinjuku Ward 181Scene ii Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo 187Scene iii Meisei University, Hino, Tokyo 200Scene iv Shinjuku Metro Promenade, Tokyo 215Further Readings 221
