Shakespeare's Book: The Story Behind the First Folio and the Making of Shakespeare

Summary

2023 marks the 400-year anniversary of the publication of Mr William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, known today simply as the First Folio. It is difficult to imagine a world without The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter's Tale, and Macbeth, but these are just some of the plays that were only preserved thanks to the astounding labor of love that was the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays.

Without the First Folio, Shakespeare is unlikely to have acquired the towering international stature he now enjoys. Its lasting impact on English national heritage, as well as its circulation across cultures, languages, and media, makes the First Folio the world's most influential secular book. But who were the personalities behind the project?

Shakespeare's Book charts the manufacture of the First Folio against a turbulent backdrop of seismic political events and international tensions. This story uncovers the friendships, bonds, social ties, and professional networks that facilitated the production of Shakespeare's book. It reveals how Shakespeare may have influenced the ways in which his own public identity would come to be enshrined in the First Folio. Shakespeare's Book tells the true story of how the makers of the First Folio created "Shakespeare" as we know him today.