This major reference book for Shakespeare scholars and bibliographers is in the second part of the story of "the greatest book" in the English language. Listing 228 copies of the First Folio, the Census gives concise descriptions of each, covering condition, special features, provenance, and binding. It traces the search for copies, deals with doubtful identifications, describes the tests for inclusion, and presents details of missing copies.

This is a biography of a book: the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays printed in 1623 and known as the First Folio. It begins with the story of its first purchaser in London in December 1623, and goes on to explore the ways people have interacted with this iconic book over the four hundred years of its history. Throughout the stress is on what we can learn from individual copies now spread around the world about their eventful lives. From ink blots to pet paws, from annotations to wineglass rings, First Folios teem with evidence of its place in different contexts with different priorities. This study offers new ways to understand Shakespeare's reception and the history of the book. Unlike previous scholarly investigations of the First Folio, it is not concerned with the discussions of how the book came into being, the provenance of its texts, or the technicalities of its production. Instead, it reanimates, in narrative style, the histories of this book, paying close attention to the details of individual copies now located around the world - their bindings, marginalia, general condition, sales history, and location - to discuss five major themes: owning, reading, decoding, performing, and perfecting. This is a history of the book that consolidated Shakespeare's posthumous reputation: a reception history and a study of interactions between owners, readers, forgers, collectors, actors, scholars, booksellers, and the book through which we understand and recognise Shakespeare.

This book is the first-ever reference to the four seventeenth-century editions of William Shakespeare's collected plays known as the folios. Along with the quartos, these works are highly valued as the earliest surviving texts of the plays and are frequently cited and discussed in textual studies and general criticism. As an introductory study of these editions, this book focuses on how the folios have traveled over time, where they can be found today, and how they have been valued monetarily. It is the first census of Shakespeare folios conducted in the last fifty years, and it is the first handbook to these important texts ever compiled. The book provides a wealth of information about the folios in a format that can be quickly and easily accessed. It describes the four editions, explains their significance, and traces their market value over time. In addition, a census shows which libraries in the United States hold folios, the chronological movement of the copies to the U.S., and some specific details on each copy. Also included are a biographical dictionary, which offers information on publishers, editors, collectors, and major scholars important to the folios, descriptions of famous copies, a list of donors, discussions of folio lore and bindings, and a bibliography. An essential reference for all Shakespeare collections, this book will be an valuable resource for courses in Shakespearian history and the history of books and printing. It will also be an important addition to both academic and public libraries.

Part literary detective story, part Shakespearean lore, The Shakespeare Thefts will charm the Bard's many fans. The first edition of Shakespeare's collected works, the First Folio, published in 1623, is one of the most valuable books in the world and has historically proven to be an attractive target for thieves. Of the 160 First Folios listed in a census of 1902, 14 were subsequently stolen-and only two of these were ever recovered. In his efforts to catalog all these precious First Folios, renowned Shakespeare scholar Eric Rasmussen embarked on a riveting journey around the globe, involving run-ins with heavily tattooed criminal street gangs in Tokyo, bizarre visits with eccentric, reclusive billionaires, and intense battles of wills with secretive librarians. He explores the intrigue surrounding the Earl of Pembroke, arguably Shakespeare's boyfriend, to whom the First Folio is dedicated and whose personal copy is still missing. He investigates the uncanny sequence of events in which a wealthy East Coast couple drowned in a boating accident and the next week their First Folio appeared for sale in Kansas. We hear about Folios that were censored, the pages ripped out of them, about a volume that was marked in red paint-or is it blood?-on every page; and of yet another that has a bullet lodged in its pages.

This catalogue of the Shakespeare First Folio (1623) is the result of two decades of research during which 232 surviving copies of this immeasurably important book were located a remarkable 72 more than were recorded in the previous census over a century ago and examined in situ, creating an essential reference work.

Documents the making of the First Folio, relating how a few years after a virtually unknown Shakespeare died, his former partners, friends, and actors gathered his surviving manuscripts.

This volume presents a winning selection of the very best essays from the long and distinguished career of Stanley Wells, one of the most well-known and respected Shakespeare scholars in the world. Wells's accomplishments include editing the entire canon of Shakespeare plays for the ground-breaking Oxford Shakespeare, and over his lifetime he has made significant contributions to debates over literary criticism of the works, genre study, textual theory, Shakespeare's afterlife in the theatre, and contemporary performance. The volume is introduced by Peter Holland, and its thirty chapters are divided into themed sections: 'Shakespearian Influences', 'Essays on Particular Works', 'Shakespeare in the Theatre', and 'Shakespeare's Text'. An afterword by Margreta de Grazia concludes the volume.