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Shakespeare & Beyond

Creating Shakespeare's First Folio

First Folio
First Folio
First Folio

A First Folio at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Photo by Lloyd Wolf.

Imagine a world without Macbeth, Twelfth Night, or Julius Caesar. We likely wouldn’t have half of Shakespeare’s plays without the First Folio. Who was responsible for making this book, the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays in 1623? And how exactly was it put together?

On this episode of Shakespeare Unlimited, we hear from Emma Smith, professor of Shakespeare studies at Oxford University and the author of The Making of Shakespeare’s First Folio. Smith talks about the London print shop that produced the First Folio, 17th-century printing practices and copyright issues, the actors from Shakespeare’s company who collected the plays and the financial risk they were taking, and other aspects of the process for creating the book that gave us Shakespeare.

Comments

Enjoyable and informative. Fascinating information about the First Folio. Thank you. I am looking forward to seeing a First Folio when the tour comes to Las Vegas.

Steve Sharpe — May 10, 2016