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Shakespeare & Beyond

How the First Folio tour came together

The First Folio Tour at Amherst College
The First Folio Tour at Amherst College
The First Folio Tour at Amherst College

First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare opening reception at the Mead Art Museum. May 9, 2016. Photo by Maria Stenzel.

On a typical book tour, authors travel to read from their work, sign copies, and give talks. But what if the author has been dead for 400 years?

During 2016, the Folger Shakespeare Library has been sending a copy of the First Folio, one of the world’s most important and influential books, to every state, Puerto Rico, and Washington, DC. The traveling exhibition First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare is part of The Wonder of Will, the Folger’s celebration of 400 years of Shakespeare.

“It’s thrilling to take this precious resource out of our vaults and on the road to share with people everywhere, from San Diego, California, to Portland, Maine, from Eugene, Oregon, to Duluth, Minnesota,” said Michael Witmore, the Folger’s director. “We’re excited to be part of the many different ways that American communities across the country are celebrating Shakespeare.”

When the Folger Shakespeare Library opened in 1932, founders Henry and Emily Folger intended it as a gift to the American people, which is why they chose to locate it a block from the US Capitol. This year, 18 of the First Folios so diligently acquired by the Folgers have been traveling across the country to 23 museums, 20 universities, five public libraries, three historical societies, and a theater.

The First Folio: The book that gave us Shakespeare

Why is the First Folio so essential? It is, as the exhibition title’s puts it, the book that gave us Shakespeare, the single book most responsible for what we know about Shakespeare’s plays today.

Seven years after Shakespeare’s death in 1616, two friends from his acting company published 36 of his plays—almost all of them—in the First Folio. It is the first source for 18 of Shakespeare’s plays, which might otherwise have been lost. Can you imagine a world without “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears”? Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, The Tempest—they were all preserved in the First Folio.

The Folger owns 82 of the 235 surviving copies of the First Folio, by far the largest holding in the world.

First Folio title page

How it all came together

Mounting a “book tour” of this magnitude was no easy task; planning began years in advance.