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This title in other editionsThe Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the Worldby Paul Collins
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:The first popular narrative history of Shakespeares First Folio, the worlds 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 Shakespeares 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 Williams travelogue follows the trail of the Folios curious rise: a dizzying S othebys 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 Shakespeares cross-cultural future as Asian buyers enter their Folios into the electronic ether, and recounts the books remarkable journey as it is found in attics, gets lost in oceans and fires, is bought and sold, and ultimately becomes immortal. Paul Collins is an assistant professor of English at Portland State University and the author of Sixpence House, The Trouble with Tom, Not Even Wrong, and Banvards Folly. His work has appeared in Smithsonian, The New York Times, and Slate. He edits the Collins Library imprint of McSweeneys Books and appears regularly on NPRs Weekend Edition as the shows resident literary detective. 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 Shakespeares 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 Williams travelogue follows the trail of the Folios curious rise: a dizzying Sothebys 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 Shakespeares cross-cultural future as Asian buyers enter their Folios into the electronic ether, and recounts the books remarkable journey as it is found in attics, gets lost in oceans and fires, is bought and sold, and ultimately becomes immortal. "Collins has done it again. This history—spanning the globe and 400 years in the life and fortunes of one of the most famous books in the English language—is not the dry province of historians, bibliophiles, and antiquarians . . . Witty, detailed, and highly entertaining, it will be appreciated by fans of Shakespeare, history, or human folly."—Library Journal "Could you imagine a world without Macbeth or A Midsummer Night's Dream? If the answer is no, direct your thanks to John Heminge and Henry Condell, Elizabethan theater producers who assembled a posthumous compilation of the work of their friend and peer William Shakespeare after he died in 1616. Without their foresight, Shakespeare might have been remembered as 'just another industrious quill-scratcher,' Collins writes in this lively and entertaining history of one of the most important books in English literature. Part antiquarian-book primer, part chronicle of literary curiosities, The Book of William is divided into five acts, each evoking a significant place and time in the First Folio's colorful history."—Megan Busky, The New York Times Book Review "Collins is the best sort of popular historian: someone who can make the obscurest facts and people absorbing and entertaining."—Nancy Pearl, author of Book Lust "The intricate, improbable story of how the first collection of Shakespeare's plays (1623) became the holiest—i.e., most expensive—of grails in Biblioland. Collins comes well equipped for his peripatetic task. Having written about bibliomania and an iconic historical figure (Thomas Paine), the author also possesses a lively curiosity and, to the enlightenment of readers of this galloping, globetrotting romp, an impressive travel allowance. As the Folio publishers divided the Bard's plays into five acts, so too does Collins arrange his tale. Act One opens in a contemporary London auction room—a Folio sold for £2.5 million—but Collins soon returns to the 1620s to watch the surviving Globe colleagues of the recently deceased Shakespeare arrange with printer William Jaggard to print the 36 plays they have assembled—18 of which, Collins reminds us, didn't exist anywhere else. No Folio would mean no Twelfth Night, Antony and Cleopatra, The Tempest or other gems. Collins then follows these First Folios through the centuries, pausing occasionally to educate us about the manufacture of paper, the difference between a folio and a quarto and the reputation of playwrights in general, Shakespeare in particular. Only obliquely does Collins address the 'authorship question,' noting slyly that a Japanese scholar was the first to notice that all the flowers mentioned in the plays grow in the vicinity of Stratford-upon-Avon. The author also looks at the editions of the Bard's plays that appeared after 1623—there were subsequent folios and editions by Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson—and sheds some light on Bard-saving heroes unknown to lay readers—notably Lewis Theobald, who was so alarmed at the errors in Pope's edition that he prepared his own. To see the best copies of the Folios, Collins interviewed experts and traveled from the vault of the Folger Shakespeare Library to a Japanese academic library. Exemplary scholar-adventurer writing."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Collins has done it again. This history—spanning the globe and 400 years in the life and fortunes of one of the most famous books in the English language—is not the dry province of historians, bibliophiles, and antiquarians . . . Witty, detailed, and highly entertaining, it will be appreciated by fans of Shakespeare, history, or human folly."—Library Journal "Undoubtedly, the Bard himself would be amused to learn all about the fate of the book compiled after his death by fellow actors and colleagues John Heminge and Henry Condell. It was, a collector said recently, 'the most important secular work of all time.' Collins, an English professor and NPR regular, is passionate, knowledgeable and sassy in bringing this story to glorious life. Collins divides his work into five acts, leading his reader on a whirlwind trip through the Four Folios eventually printed, into feuds between Alexander Pope and Lewis Theobald and to the opportunistic reach of a financially desperate Dr. Johnson. Over the next 200 years, there are the stories of Henry Clay Folger as well as an ingenious collating machine and related technologies for today's textual scholars. Collins's remarkable voyage through time and across the globe leads to Japan, where the most obsessive collectors of 'Sheikusupia' reside. This is for anyone with an interest in how Shakespeare has come down to us, the nature of the book business, the art of editing and the evolution of copyright law. A 20-page 'Further Readings' section is by itself a sheer delight."—Publishers Weekly Review:"What can I say? I'm pretty sure that if Paul Collins wrote a history of the Detroit phone book, I would read and enjoy that too. Who'd have thought that a troll through First Foliodom could be so entertaining and absorbing? Collins is the best sort of popular historian: someone who can make the obscurest facts and people absorbing and entertaining." Nancy Pearl, author of Book Lust Synopsis:The first popular narrative history of Shakespeares First Folio, the worlds 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 Shakespeares 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 Williams travelogue follows the trail of the Folios curious rise: a dizzying S othebys 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 Shakespeares cross-cultural future as Asian buyers enter their Folios into the electronic ether, and recounts the books remarkable journey as it is found in attics, gets lost in oceans and fires, is bought and sold, and ultimately becomes immortal. About the AuthorPaul Collins is an assistant professor of English at Portland State University and the author of Sixpence House, The Trouble with Tom, Not Even Wrong, and Banvards Folly. His work has appeared in Smithsonian, the New York Times, and Slate. He edits the Collins Library imprint of McSweeneys Books and appears regularly on NPRs Weekend Edition as the shows resident literary detective. What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
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