For antiquarians, the First Folio is the greatest of prizes: One sold for $9.9 million in 2020. The United States is home to more than half of all existing copies of the First Folio, followed by the United Kingdom and Japan, with handfuls of editions also existing in Germany, France, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand among other countries. “He sought nothing less than the obliteration of the language and culture of the native populations in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, nurturing a desire to replace these with the English language and its literary products.” “For Grey, the First Folio represented the pinnacle of culture, but specifically English culture,” Laoutaris says. Sir George Grey, who had served as a colonial governor, established libraries worldwide that included copies of the First Folio. By the 19th century, the original Folio was becoming a valued piece of history, in part through the efforts of collectors Henry and Emily Folger, and a symbol of might for the British Empire. The Folio proved successful enough that an updated edition, the Second Folio, was published in 1632, a Third Folio in 1663 and a fourth in 1685. “When it was released, the First Folio cost more to produce than any other collection of plays in history up until that point.” “Only those with deep pockets, and the space to read them, could afford such luxurious products,” says Laoutaris, an associate professor at the Shakespeare Institute in the playwright’s native Stratford-On-Avon and author of “Shakespeare’s Book: The Intertwined Lives Behind the Fist Folio,” which came out this year. While the British Museum edition is relatively affordable, the Folio Society’s production is closer to the intended market for the original release. Before Shakespeare the only playwright known to have been so honored was his contemporary Ben Jonson, who honored himself by overseeing “The Workes of Benjamin Jonson” in 1616. The First Folio was daring, even audacious for its time, when such publications were “reserved for learned treatises, hefty genealogical texts, books of religious or historiographical importance, or even works by monarchs,” according to Shakespeare scholar Chris Laoutaris.
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