Before that he was a long-standing Lecturer and Renaissance Literature Course Convenor at University College London, where he also completed his PhD. Chris Laoutaris is a Lecturer and Birmingham Fellow at The Shakespeare Institute in Shakespeare’s birthplace of Stratford-Upon-Avon. Shakespeare’s Book tells the true story of how the makers of the First Folio created “Shakespeare” as we know him today.ĭr. It reveals how Shakespeare himself, before his death, may have influenced the ways in which his own public identity would come to be enshrined in the First Folio, shaping his legacy to future generations and determining how the world would remember him: "not of an age, but for all time."
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This story uncovers the friendships, bonds, social ties, and professional networks that facilitated the production of Shakespeare’s book-as well as the personal challenges, tragedies and dangers that threw obstacles in the path of its chief backers. Shakespeare’s Book: The Story Behind the First Folio and the Making of Shakespeare charts, for the first time, the manufacture of the First Folio against a turbulent backdrop of seismic political events and international tensions which intersected with the lives of its creators and which left their indelible marks on this ambitious publication-project. But who were the personalities behind the project and did Shakespeare himself play a role in its inception? Its lasting impact on English national heritage, as well as its circulation across cultures, languages, and media, makes the First Folio the world’s most influential secular book. Without the First Folio Shakespeare is unlikely to have acquired the towering international stature he now enjoys across the arts, the pedagogical arena, and popular culture. When the First Folio hit the bookstalls in 1623, nearly eight years after the dramatist’s death, it provided eighteen previously unpublished plays, and significantly revised versions of close to a dozen other dramatic works, many of which may not have survived without the efforts of those who backed, financed, curated, and crafted what is arguably one of the most important conservation projects in literary history. It is difficult to imagine a world without The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter’s Tale, and Macbeth, but these are just some of the plays that were only preserved thanks to the astounding labor of love that was the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays. The never-before-told story of how the makers of The First Folio created Shakespeare as we know him today.Ģ023 marks the 400-year anniversary of the publication of Mr William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, known today simply as the First Folio. Literature Portal - All articles about literature, books and writers.Shakespeare's Book The Story Behind the First Folio and the Making of Shakespeare Chris Laoutaris
Copies that arrive at auction realize fabulous prices. The First Folio is one of the most valuable printed books in the world. The most (82) are in the Folger Library in Washington, D.C. Two hundred twenty-eight copies are still in existence. Other copies are in the hands of millionaire book collectors. Scholars rely on the First Folio for the texts of the plays not printed in quarto editions.įew copies of the First Folio are extant, with most being in museum and library collections. About half of Shakespeare's plays were printed in what is known as quarto editions during his lifetime. It contains all of Shakespeare's plays except Pericles, Prince of Tyre, The Two Noble Kinsman, and the two "lost plays", Cardenio and Love's Labour's Won. The collection was the project of two of Shakespeare's theatrical colleagues: John Heminges and Henry Condell. These categories have remained in use to the modern age with the addition of "Romances". The plays have been categorized into literary genres for the first time: history plays, comedies, and tragedies. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies.
Its original price was 1 pound, the equivalent of about £95–£110 or US$190 to $220 in 2006. In its day, the First Folio was an expensive book. It is believed about 750 copies were printed. The term "folio" refers to the size of a page a folio page is about 15 inches (38 cm) tall. The First Folio is the common name for the first complete edition of Shakespeare's plays.
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