Overview

The first popular narrative history of Shakespeare's First Folio, the world's most obsessively pursued book One book above all others has transfixed connoisseurs for four centuries--a book sold for shillings in the streets of London, whisked to Manhattan for millions, and stored deep within the vaults of Tokyo. The book: William Shakespeare's First Folio of 1623. Paul Collins, lover of odd books and author of the national bestseller Sixpence House, takes up the strange quest for this white whale of precious books. Broken down into five acts, each tied to a different location and century, The Book of William's travelogue follows the trail of the Folio's curious rise: a dizzying Sotheby's auction on a pristine copy preserved since the seventeenth century, the Fleet Street machinations of the eighteenth century, the nineteenth-century quests for lost Folios, obsessive acquisitions by twentieth-century oilmen, and the high-tech hoards of twenty-first-century Japan. Finally, Collins speculates on Shakespeare's cross-cultural future as Asian buyers enter their Folios into the electronic ether, and recounts the book's remarkable journey as it is found in attics, gets lost in oceans and fires, is bought and sold, and ultimately becomes immortal.

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Reviews

"[A] lively and entertaining history of one of the most important books in English literature. -- ""New York Times Book Review"" Collins has done it again. This history--spanning the globe and 400 years in the life and fortunes of one of the most famous books in the English language--is not the dry province of historians, bibliophiles, and antiquarians...Witty, detailed, and highly entertaining, it will be appreciated by fans of Shakespeare, history, or human folly. -- ""Library Journal"" Exemplary scholar-adventurer writing. -- ""Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"" Gleefully astonishing...Collins provides one of the most enjoyable examples of a most enjoyable genre, the book biography, as he tells the stories of individual Shakespeare first folios, their owners, their uses, and their travels. It's a supremely enlightening journey that Collins' convivial manner makes thoroughly gratifying. -- ""Booklist"""

[A] lively and entertaining history of one of the most important books in English literature. -- New York Times Book Review Collins has done it again. This history--spanning the globe and 400 years in the life and fortunes of one of the most famous books in the English language--is not the dry province of historians, bibliophiles, and antiquarians...Witty, detailed, and highly entertaining, it will be appreciated by fans of Shakespeare, history, or human folly. -- Library Journal Exemplary scholar-adventurer writing. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Gleefully astonishing...Collins provides one of the most enjoyable examples of a most enjoyable genre, the book biography, as he tells the stories of individual Shakespeare first folios, their owners, their uses, and their travels. It's a supremely enlightening journey that Collins' convivial manner makes thoroughly gratifying. -- Booklist

Author Information

Paul Collins is an author specializing in science writing, magazine writing, history, and memoir; his books have appeared in a dozen languages. He is the recipient of an Oregon Book Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

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