Growing up on the frontier, Abraham Lincoln had few books to read in his early days—but among them were the works of Shakespeare, which Lincoln cherished throughout his life. The actor Joseph Jefferson later told the story of how Lincoln, as a young lawyer, successfully defended his father’s Illinois theater when a religious revival threatened… Continue Reading »
Posts Categorized: Shakespeare-in-the-world

Over the course of 2016, the Folger Shakespeare Library is sending a First Folio to all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico and Washington, DC. Each month we’ll be checking in on the progress of this traveling exhibition, First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare.

How did you first encounter Shakespeare? Was it in a classroom or a theater? How old were you? Was it love at first sight, or did it take you some time to warm up to the Bard? Did any particular lines or characters really stick with you? As part of The Wonder of Will in 2016, a… Continue Reading »

A late eighteenth-century Shakespeare art museum is experiencing a second life as a detailed online re-creation, the brainchild of University of Texas English professor Janine Barchas.