Henry Clay Folger paid a world record price for a book—not once, but twice—as he became the world’s leading collector of Shakespeare First Folios. In this episode from Shakespeare Unlimited, economist and author Andrea Mays talks with Neva Grant about some of the fascinating financial and personal details of Folger’s life, and in particular, how… Continue Reading »

Much ado about the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which has announced plans to ‘translate’ all of Shakespeare’s plays into contemporary English. The Play On project is commissioning 36 playwrights (each paired with a dramaturg) over three years to produce modern renderings of the entire Shakespeare dramatic canon. For OSF, the plays are companion pieces, not replacements;… Continue Reading »

As you’ll hear in this episode of the Folger’s Shakespeare Unlimited podcast, Shakespeare and his plays are woven deeply into the culture of the British Caribbean. Even after centuries of British colonial rule came to an end, Shakespeare endured—in fascinating ways that come out in conversation with two scholars.

Folger Finds delivers delightful and insightful moments with the Folger collection. Sarah Hovde, a cataloger at the Folger Shakespeare Library, shares the story behind a 1910 Esperanto edition of Shakespeare’s As You Like It.

This copy of the Fourth Folio, published in 1685, is the first Shakespeare Folio to be added to the Folger Shakespeare Library collection since the days of our founders, Henry Folger (1857-1930) and Emily Folger (1858-1936). The collection now holds 38 copies of this last of the four great printings of Shakespeare’s collected plays during… Continue Reading »

A recent episode of the Folger’s Shakespeare Unlimited podcast offers an interesting interview with British Shakespearean scholar and author Stanley Wells. At the heart of that conversation, one might say, is a simple question. For all the contributions of directors and designers, for the majority of audience members, Shakespeare is brought to life by the… Continue Reading »