The Making of Shakespeare's First Folio

The Making of Shakespeare’s First Folio offers the first comprehensive biography of the earliest collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays. In November 1623, the book arrived in the bookshop of the London publisher Edward Blount at the Black Bear. Long in the making, Master William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies—as the First Folio was then known—appeared seven years after Shakespeare’s death. Nearly one thousand pages in length, the collection comprised thirty-six plays, half of which had never been previously published. Yet no fanfare surrounded the initial publication of Shakespeare’s First Folio—no queue of eager readers, no launch to the top of the best-seller list.

Nevertheless, it is hard to overstate the importance of this literary, cultural, and commercial moment. Emma Smith tells the story of the First Folio’s origins, locating it within the social and political context of Jacobean London and bringing in the latest scholarship on the seventeenth-century book trade. Generously illustrated in color with key pages from the publication and comparative works, this new edition combines the 2016 discovery of a hitherto unknown edition of the First Folio at Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute with the human, artistic, economic and technical stories of the birth of this landmark publication—and the birth of Shakespeare’s towering reputation.

“"With its beautiful illustrations and intriguing background covering aspects of early modern life, this is just the thing for Bard lovers looking to fill in some of the blanks related to the book that gave us Shakespeare."”

"The Making of Shakespeare's First Folio . . . is appropriately published by the Bodleian Library, where Professor Smith played a main part in the 'Sprint for Shakespeare' campaign to stabilize and digitize their copy, which has supplied many of the book's rather sepia-coloured images . . . . This is a clearly written account of the main issues in its printing and publication, drawing on the standard authorities."

-- "Times Literary Supplement"
"The Bodleian Library's The Making of Shakespeare's First Folio . . . [is] full of admirable detail and scholarship, but what we want most of all is to see Shakespeare that feels new and fresh. This kind of performance does just that."
-- "Independent" (12/17/2015 12:00:00 AM)

Emma Smith is Fellow and Tutor in English at Hertford College, Oxford.

In late November 1623, Edward Blount finally took delivery at his bookshop at the sign of the Black Bear near St Paul's of a book that had been long in the making. Master William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies was the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays, appearing some seven years after their author's death in 1616. Its 950 folio pages included thirty-six plays, half of which had not previously been printed, divided under the three generic headings of the title. There was no fanfare at the book's arrival. There was nothing of the marketing overdrive that marks an important new publication in our own period: no advertising campaign, no reviews, interviews, endorsements or literary prizes, no queues in St Paul's Churchyard, no sales figures, price war, copycat publications or bestseller lists - in short, no sensation. Nevertheless, it is hard to overstate the importance of this literary, cultural and commercial moment. This book, generously illustrated with key pages from the publication and comparative works tells the human, artistic, economic and technical stories of the birth of the First Folio - and the emergence of Shakespeare's towering reputation.

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