Dear Friends,
I cannot contain my excitement to share something with you. I recently obtained for my library the most expensive book in the world!
In a manner of speaking, that is. What is the most expensive book, you wonder? The answer is the 1623 Edition of William Shakespeare’s First Folio, a volume of collected plays put together by a number of his friends seven years after his death. The First Folio is significant because it contains numerous plays that had never before been published. Had his friends not performed this labor of love, we would be missing eighteen of Shakespeare’s plays!
Now why is this the most expensive book in the world? Because the printer only made 750 copies, of which 235 are known to have survived through the subsequent 400 years. Simple supply and demand—did you know that this Shakespeare guy is quite popular? In October of 2020 Christie’s auction house sold a copy of the First Folio for $10 Million, making it the most expensive work of literature ever auctioned.
No, that purchaser was certainly not me! However, I had some Christmas gift money and recently decided to purchase a “very fine” used copy of The Norton Facsimile of The First Folio of Shakespeare at half the retail price. And I’m fairly giddy about it.
A facsimile is just what it sounds like: a photographic reproduction. Here are some pictures, and I apologize for the shadows. The lighting in my study wasn’t cooperating.
You will note that it is essentially the same size as the 1623 original (“Folio” is actually a page size), so it is a truly majestic volume! Now I have to figure out where I’m going to put this thing. I envision someday, if and when I get my library built, I will have a pedestal where this will lay open on permanent display.
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