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The Shakespeare Thefts: In Search of the First Folios
Published in 1623, the first edition of William Shakespeare's collected works, known as the "First Folio," is one of the most sought-after books in the world. Compiled by Shakespeare's fellow actors, it is the authoritative text of his plays, and copies from its 750-copy print run have been yearned for by kings, earls, and bibliophiles since they first came off the press.
In his effort to track down the extant 232 copies - and to identify others that have been stolen or lost - renowned Shakespeare scholar Eric Rasmussen and his team of First Folio hunters embarked on an incredible adventure around the world. This fast-paced narrative takes us from the courtrooms of England to high-security vaults in the rare book rooms of Japan, back through centuries to Ben Jonson's cousin, and even takes a look at the notes that a Spanish Inquisitor scribbled on the margins of one copy. In their search to unravel the often circuitous journeys of the volumes, Rasmussen and his team encounter thieve, reclusive librarians, and eccentric billionaires who are all lusting for one of the world's most valuable books. This fascinating account explores how manuscript hunters identify a book that may have an illegitimate owner and a secret past; how to identify distinguishing marks: a bullet hole, desecrated pages, and red stains that resemble blood; and how a book's location and condition can reveal its story.
Part literary detective story, part Shakespearean lore, "The Shakespeare Thefts" is a rare glimpse between the covers of one of the most coveted books in the world.
In his effort to track down the extant 232 copies - and to identify others that have been stolen or lost - renowned Shakespeare scholar Eric Rasmussen and his team of First Folio hunters embarked on an incredible adventure around the world. This fast-paced narrative takes us from the courtrooms of England to high-security vaults in the rare book rooms of Japan, back through centuries to Ben Jonson's cousin, and even takes a look at the notes that a Spanish Inquisitor scribbled on the margins of one copy. In their search to unravel the often circuitous journeys of the volumes, Rasmussen and his team encounter thieve, reclusive librarians, and eccentric billionaires who are all lusting for one of the world's most valuable books. This fascinating account explores how manuscript hunters identify a book that may have an illegitimate owner and a secret past; how to identify distinguishing marks: a bullet hole, desecrated pages, and red stains that resemble blood; and how a book's location and condition can reveal its story.
Part literary detective story, part Shakespearean lore, "The Shakespeare Thefts" is a rare glimpse between the covers of one of the most coveted books in the world.
212 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2011
12 people are currently reading
811 people want to read
About the author
Eric Rasmussen
79 books22 followersI am the author of the forthcoming title THE SHAKESPEARE THEFTS (Palgrave Macmillan), a part literary detective story, part Shakespearean lore that follows my efforts to catalog Shakespeare's First Folios.
I am also co-editor of the RSC Complete Works of William Shakespeare, the Norton Anthology of English Renaissance Drama, and of the works of Christopher Marlowe in the Oxford World's Classics series as well as individual plays in the Arden Shakespeare series, the Revels Plays series, and the Malone Society series. Since 1997, I have written the annual review of editions and textual studies for Shakespeare Survey. When I am not writing about the bard, I lecture about his great works as a professor of English at the University of Nevada.
He lives in Reno, Nevada.
I am also co-editor of the RSC Complete Works of William Shakespeare, the Norton Anthology of English Renaissance Drama, and of the works of Christopher Marlowe in the Oxford World's Classics series as well as individual plays in the Arden Shakespeare series, the Revels Plays series, and the Malone Society series. Since 1997, I have written the annual review of editions and textual studies for Shakespeare Survey. When I am not writing about the bard, I lecture about his great works as a professor of English at the University of Nevada.
He lives in Reno, Nevada.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 95 reviews
December 30, 2011
The premise to this book sounded like tons of fun. I went into it expecting a "riveting" and intense recounting of the various attempts (successful and failed) to steal the First Folio over the years. What I ended up reading was indeed interesting but not nearly as compelling or intriguing as the numerous marketing blurbs and synopses made me expect.
First, I must applaud the author and his team. They have done astounding detective work to track down, identify and extensively catalog the known First Folio's out in the world. The amount of detail put into this effort is truly mind boggling. The knowledge and expertise that the author and the team have is amazing.
The book gives an initial overview of WHAT the First Folio is and what its significance is in the literary world. This description is interesting and educational. From my own studies, I'd heard the basic overview before…the comparison of the Folio versus the Quarto, the timing of how the Folios came about, etc. The overview also goes into the rarity of the Folio as a medium and with regards to the Shakespeare Folio specifically.
After the overview of the Folio history, the rest of the book follows the history of some of the known copies of the Shakespeare Folio still in existence. It is amazing the degree of detail recorded about these books…not only about their history and lineage of ownership, but also about identifying characteristics (down to creases or stains on specific areas of specific pages).
Each chapter was usually focused on the specific history of one of the known surviving Folios, though some chapters were more thematic in describing similar events or occurrences that happened to numerous Folios.
There were dozens of fun and interesting stories of theft, vandalism, fraud, mistaken identity (both of ownership and of the Folio itself) and more. Some stories were more interesting than others and the amount of research and detail for each story was always impressive.
Where the book was lost on me was the narrative style. For some reason, I never did find myself gripped by the writing, even by the most exciting or intriguing of the histories. I think this was partly due to the number of stories and the rapidity of their telling. Even with the amount of details involved, each story usually only covered a few pages and often only a few paragraphs. Add to this that the language was often steeped in scholarship and focused on presenting everything as factual as possible, and these brief stories read more like a history textbook than an exciting retelling of intrigue and suspicion (as promised by the summary).
I still found the book to be very interesting and informative. It told me a lot more about the Folios than I ever knew before and it also gave me a ton of interesting little tales of intrigue within the book world. But the book never hit home for me as the compelling read I was expecting based on the synopsis. I suspect it will have a narrow audience that may be even more narrow due to maintaining so scholarly and deep. I feel like it could have broadened its appeal by providing more engaging narratives and I'm sure this could be done without sacrificing the academic nature of the book.
This isn't a bad book…in fact, it is an excellent book. But it's certainly not going to be for everyone. I'm worried that the publishing and marketing team of this book is going to lose its audience by presenting the book as something it's not. The title, the synopsis, the quotes/blurbs, etc all suggest that you're looking at a literary thriller. If you go into this book looking for an academic thriller from someone like Eco (or the more pulp-fiction version like Brown), you'll come away disappointed. If you go in looking for a scholarly analysis on the Folio, then this book is a masterpiece and will leave you very fulfilled.
***
3 out of 5 stars
First, I must applaud the author and his team. They have done astounding detective work to track down, identify and extensively catalog the known First Folio's out in the world. The amount of detail put into this effort is truly mind boggling. The knowledge and expertise that the author and the team have is amazing.
The book gives an initial overview of WHAT the First Folio is and what its significance is in the literary world. This description is interesting and educational. From my own studies, I'd heard the basic overview before…the comparison of the Folio versus the Quarto, the timing of how the Folios came about, etc. The overview also goes into the rarity of the Folio as a medium and with regards to the Shakespeare Folio specifically.
After the overview of the Folio history, the rest of the book follows the history of some of the known copies of the Shakespeare Folio still in existence. It is amazing the degree of detail recorded about these books…not only about their history and lineage of ownership, but also about identifying characteristics (down to creases or stains on specific areas of specific pages).
Each chapter was usually focused on the specific history of one of the known surviving Folios, though some chapters were more thematic in describing similar events or occurrences that happened to numerous Folios.
There were dozens of fun and interesting stories of theft, vandalism, fraud, mistaken identity (both of ownership and of the Folio itself) and more. Some stories were more interesting than others and the amount of research and detail for each story was always impressive.
Where the book was lost on me was the narrative style. For some reason, I never did find myself gripped by the writing, even by the most exciting or intriguing of the histories. I think this was partly due to the number of stories and the rapidity of their telling. Even with the amount of details involved, each story usually only covered a few pages and often only a few paragraphs. Add to this that the language was often steeped in scholarship and focused on presenting everything as factual as possible, and these brief stories read more like a history textbook than an exciting retelling of intrigue and suspicion (as promised by the summary).
I still found the book to be very interesting and informative. It told me a lot more about the Folios than I ever knew before and it also gave me a ton of interesting little tales of intrigue within the book world. But the book never hit home for me as the compelling read I was expecting based on the synopsis. I suspect it will have a narrow audience that may be even more narrow due to maintaining so scholarly and deep. I feel like it could have broadened its appeal by providing more engaging narratives and I'm sure this could be done without sacrificing the academic nature of the book.
This isn't a bad book…in fact, it is an excellent book. But it's certainly not going to be for everyone. I'm worried that the publishing and marketing team of this book is going to lose its audience by presenting the book as something it's not. The title, the synopsis, the quotes/blurbs, etc all suggest that you're looking at a literary thriller. If you go into this book looking for an academic thriller from someone like Eco (or the more pulp-fiction version like Brown), you'll come away disappointed. If you go in looking for a scholarly analysis on the Folio, then this book is a masterpiece and will leave you very fulfilled.
***
3 out of 5 stars
January 16, 2013
So fun facts about me: I great up in Stratford (Ontario, not England) and the Festival was a huge part of basically everyone's lives - your parents worked there (yes, my mom did), you knew someone who did, your family business supported the tourists, or you worked there (yep, I did!) and it was basically non optional that you'd go there as a school and then camp field trip (True story, I saw Alice through the Looking Glass 6 times because of school and various camps) (I also hated it) (Sorry Sarah Polly). Unlike most elementary schools (or so I hear) we also studied Shakespeare all through grade school- one of the other schools did this whole big thing where they painted pictures, and their teacher re-wrote the plays to be accessible. My slacker school just had us read these books, and watch cartons.
So basically I'm saying that while I'm in no way claiming to be a scholar, I got Shakespeare. My favourite play is Pericles, my favourite character is King Lear and I can explain to you in detail why the Globe, and therein Main Stage have thrust stages. So I was tentatively excited to have won this book, because with great power, comes great responsibility. By that I mean if people find out you're from Stratford, everyone becomes and expert and tells you AT LENGTH everything they know about Shakespeare and blah blah blah. From that, I do know that arguably the First Folio of Shakespeare is one of the most important publications in terms of modern English (the others probably include the King James Bible and a terrifying number of others I'm too tired to be clever about), and I also knew (because this is something we all know in Stratford (you're thrown out if you don't)) that about 1000 copies were printed, and apparently 232 have been accounted for. We know this, because Eric Rasmussen has a crack team of Folio Hunters. True Story, when I was a kid, I wanted to be on this crack team but then oops I got distracted by something shiny.
But this is a review, so here you go: Rasmussen formed his team in the mid-90's with the goal of documenting as many surviving copies as possible and determining their provenance - this books is kind of a best of of what his team did. The world they discovered was... fascinating, obsessive and mildly terrifying. I don't really want to get into the stories, because I think that that ruins things, but it includes Cubans, a Pope, a bricklayer and a playboy. I don't really want to get into it, because if you're interested you should just go read it because it's a fun romp through a thoroughly obsessive and mildly insane group of people who are trying to do the impossible because you know that the next copy is hidden in Great Great Aunty Muriel's attic, under a million fur coats and possibly in a trunk that you lost the key to.
So here's the thing. I wouldn't recommend this to someone unless I knew they a) loved shakespeare b) loved anecdotes or c) were really into the tracking of loss of historical record (it's a thing, I promise). That all being said, I really did enjoy the book. It's a fast read that make me laugh, taught me things about how books are lost, found and faked and generally was clever and interesting. A lot of the problems I've seen people have with it is that the author didn't get into a lot of detail about the stories - Rasmussen kind of flung the story at you, but glossed over the heavy investigative/academic work that you all know they did. I don't actually have an issue with him having done this- and I think it was the right choice. That stuff he glossed over is intense, and usually not in a way that would be interesting to a lay person reading it. I do admittedly wish he got into a bit more detail with some of the stories I found more interesting, but I think he was going for a kind of overall quick "Hey, this is what we're doing isn't it cool" thing with the book. Basically? Yeah, yeah it is cool.
*** I won this book through Goodreads - all opinions are my own.
http://vivalakt.blogspot.ca/
February 25, 2013
The book started off fine, a collection of anecdotes relating to celebrated and infamous owners of the First Folio, but something turned sour, around chapter 4, where Rasmussen's drive to catalogue the exact details of every known edition becomes imperialistic. So much more daunting did his description of his "Ocean's eleven" team of folio hunters (mostly American fortune-seekers, it should be noted) make the following chapters, that I lost track of why the Descriptive Catalogue of folios seems necessary. We can learn lots about the plays and even guess at what was going on in the mind of Shakespeare by seeing the plays in performance. However, the amount of time and money spent on tracking down moldy, marked-up and stained copies of the original print takes one further away from the author's intention to please and entertain. So much less like the humble and humane description of the folios in Collins' Book of William that I read ecstatically last year. So much more did Rasmussen's findings, particularly the bogus Shakespeare portrait, remind me of the scene in Merchant-Ivory's Remains of the Day where Nazi officers coolly surveyed Darlington's art collection, making note of eventual acquisitions. Better off to have the anonymous folio owners in Japan keep their genkan closed to this project, and have some respect for private ownership of something already abundant in the public domain.
June 28, 2019
This was a fascinating education on the first folios, their history, and the story of the people who have cherished and stolen them over the years. So fun!
June 2, 2013
The subject matter of this book--along with some of the information and anecdotes contained within it--is definitely an interesting and compelling one. The author, a noted Shakespeare scholar, has traveled the globe for decades, hunting down and cataloguing First Folios. Yet for someone who has done such fascinating work and understands the folios in a deep and meaningful way, Rasmussen has written a book that largely comes across as the ramblings of a drunk uncle. It's poorly written, and its structure and organization are confusing at best. It's more or less Rasmussen flinging out little fun stories and anecdotes without rhyme or reason, as opposed to offering solid information about the First Folios. It felt, at time, as though supposition won out over fact; in parts, there were certainly more question marks than there were periods. (Ie: Did suchandsuch perhaps sell his First Folio? Or was it stolen from his collection? Did he cherish it as much as his contemporaries? We might never know the answer...etc...)
I'd leave this one on the shelf and try out one of the many other works on the First Folio...
I'd leave this one on the shelf and try out one of the many other works on the First Folio...
January 13, 2012
When I mentioned that I was reading this book to a friend who concentrated in Shakespeare studies in college, she said that she could not "get into" the book. I understand. I forged on because the story was so compelling; where are all of the copies of Shakespeare's first folio? The author and his team have spent a great deal of their lives tracking down extant copies of the folio, and recently published "SFF: A Descriptive Catalogue" that is referenced so many times in this book that I wonder if TST is merely a teaser for the earlier book.
But the most egregious impediment to enjoyment of TST is the writing. There are no segues. The author’s mid-sentence tense changes, I suspect written to build up suspense (WAS the folio found, or IS the folio still missing /IS the thief in jail or WAS he falsely accused), only confuse and annoy.
Oh, what this could have been in the hands of a skilled storyteller. Skip the body and head right to the end notes, where the most intriguing tidbits can be found.
But the most egregious impediment to enjoyment of TST is the writing. There are no segues. The author’s mid-sentence tense changes, I suspect written to build up suspense (WAS the folio found, or IS the folio still missing /IS the thief in jail or WAS he falsely accused), only confuse and annoy.
Oh, what this could have been in the hands of a skilled storyteller. Skip the body and head right to the end notes, where the most intriguing tidbits can be found.
April 28, 2012
I'm not sure why this book disappointed me so much. It's such a neat premise, and the author and his team are doing a really interesting and important thing-- tracking down, studying, and cataloging all of Shakespeare's First Folios, to authenticate them and trace their owners through history. But the book itself, instead of getting into the meaty investigative and academic work necessary to do this, glossed over it all, and the book came away feeling "fluffy." The information that was presented was intriguing, and a few less obvious themes (like nationalism and the folio) were brought up, but it was never enough to justify the drama implied in the title-- really, the drama implied in the research project itself. Still an interesting book, but it didn't cover any particular topic (historical readers and owners of Shakespeare's works, the printing and publishing of Elizabethan plays, current dealers and collectors in rare books) in enough depth for me to recommend it.
October 4, 2011
"The first edition of Shakespeare's collected works, the First Folio, published in 1623, is one of the most valuable books in the world and has historically proven to be an attractive target for thieves. Of the 160 First Folios listed in a census of 1902, 14 were subsequently stolen-and only two of these were ever recovered."
In the hands of an average writer,this non-fiction account of one of the most infamous crimes could be quite dry- happily Eric Rasmussen is far from an average writer! The Shakespeare Thefts: Stealing the World's Most Famous Book reads like a mystery novel, thriller peppered with superb reserch - which immediatly graps the reader and refuses to let go!
A JAMES MASON COMMUNITY BOOK CLUB MUST READ
RICK FRIEDMAN
FOUNDER
THE JAMES MASON COMMUNITY BOOK CLUB
In the hands of an average writer,this non-fiction account of one of the most infamous crimes could be quite dry- happily Eric Rasmussen is far from an average writer! The Shakespeare Thefts: Stealing the World's Most Famous Book reads like a mystery novel, thriller peppered with superb reserch - which immediatly graps the reader and refuses to let go!
A JAMES MASON COMMUNITY BOOK CLUB MUST READ
RICK FRIEDMAN
FOUNDER
THE JAMES MASON COMMUNITY BOOK CLUB
December 31, 2012
BOOK NERDS. Well, folio nerds in any case. Rasmussen and a small group of historians and archivists set out to track down as many of the known copies remaining of the first edition of the First Folio (Shakespeare`s collected works).
As one would expect, there are some crazy characters and eccentric rich people. Some pretty amazing stuff - there`s a vault in Japan, for example, that has quite a few folios, and there are lots of bits and pieces missing or brought back together in the different versions.
Quite a few mysterious lives of the folios are tracked as well - with several black market transactions, as one can imagine. Ultimately, the group has put together an exhaustive catalog of identifying marks and physical descriptions of everything they could get there hands on, which ought to get the bibliophile hearts going pitter-patter.
As one would expect, there are some crazy characters and eccentric rich people. Some pretty amazing stuff - there`s a vault in Japan, for example, that has quite a few folios, and there are lots of bits and pieces missing or brought back together in the different versions.
Quite a few mysterious lives of the folios are tracked as well - with several black market transactions, as one can imagine. Ultimately, the group has put together an exhaustive catalog of identifying marks and physical descriptions of everything they could get there hands on, which ought to get the bibliophile hearts going pitter-patter.
May 9, 2023
Amusing and very readable, this appears to be all the stories Rasmussen and his team couldn't (or didn't want to) publish in their monumental census. It has a lot of good anecdotes, and has been quite useful to add a bit of color to some of the scholarly work I’ve been doing on book crime and provenance issues. However, from time to time, this crosses the line from being lighthearted to being a bit too gossipy and mean spirited. It’s unfortunate, because it’s an otherwise enjoyable read.
May 3, 2016
This was a really interesting book. Eric Rasmussen worked with a team who researched First Folios and then made a definitive catalog of them, and this book is about interesting anecdotes they discovered. Though it could have been longer and more detailed, I really enjoyed it. Recommended for people interested in old books, Shakespeare, or the 17th-century.
May 7, 2020
A fascinating (if too short) read. The history of Shakespeare's First Folios, the eccentrics who owned them and the unusual stories that surround them. What surprised me the most was the meticulous care that the archivists take when they examine one of these books. They itemize every tiny hint of damage or marginalia on every single page so that they essentially create a fingerprint of that particular copy. Heaven help any thief today who steals one and then tries to sell it to a legitimate collector. It would be identified immediately.
My only criticism is that I wanted more from this book than it was able to provide. More discussion of the actual plays themselves, but I guess that will have to be found in other books.
My only criticism is that I wanted more from this book than it was able to provide. More discussion of the actual plays themselves, but I guess that will have to be found in other books.
May 23, 2018
A quick and breezy read for someone who doesn't mind a dizzying array of names and places to follow. Rasmussen was one of an incredibly ambitious group of scholars who spent several years examining every known copy of the First Folio that they could get access to, as well as digging up the whereabouts of further, unknown or unexamined copies.
The book is a bit anecdotal for someone who might be an expert in First Folios or general book provenance, but it is sure to delight even those, and is really only lacking some sort of unifying structure to its numerous chapters. I would highly recommend this book, overall.
The book is a bit anecdotal for someone who might be an expert in First Folios or general book provenance, but it is sure to delight even those, and is really only lacking some sort of unifying structure to its numerous chapters. I would highly recommend this book, overall.
August 8, 2013
Extremely easy to read and interesting book, but probably only for those interested in Shakespeare, his folios, or really old books. I talked about this recently with a friend and she just rolled her eyes.
But I thought it was interesting, and the author's fascination and joy of his subject also leaps off the page. He clearly loves what he does, and he is clearly very knowledgeable of what he does.
What is that, exactly? Well, he's a Shakespearean scholar, and an overall authority on the 1623 Folio, and its 250 or so copies out there. (He believes there are maybe 250 more out there, somewhere, possibly in boxes in libraries--or in somebody's attic.) His lifelong ambition: to very minutely survey and catalogue every single copy of the 1623 Folio. Why? Because they're frequently stolen, because even one in poor condition is worth a few million, and because...well, because he's sort of a fanatic about it. And I mean that in a very, very complimentary way. Had I the education of this stuff, and the time and the money, I would definitely join him on his travels. Though the whole waiting, and the dealing with people, I would have to leave to them.
I don't know how to explain the joy someone would have about reading stuff like this, except to maybe give you an example. I'm sort of a nut about very old baseball cards as well. The cream of the crop for such things is the 1909-1911 T206 Honus Wagner card, which even in poor condition is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. A very good one sold recently for seven million dollars. People are absolutely fanatic about this card. Many would steal it, if given the chance--and not for the money. Just for the chance to hold one. And to own one? Heaven. Bliss. I feel that, too. I saw one a few years ago at the New York Public Library in Manhattan. Someone thought it would be a great idea to paste that one to a scrapbook page, so that all anyone again would ever see of that card is the front of it. Not only does this greatly reduce its value, but it's not about the money--it's about the awesomeness of the card itself. If you can say, "So the hell what?" then maybe this book isn't for you. But if that makes you grind your teeth with frustration and anger, you'd enjoy this book.
Because the stories in this book about the trials and tribulations that people--and their folios--have undergone over the years matches the above example. People have stolen them just to have a copy. Just to hold it in their hands, to flip through the cloth pages, to...You get the idea. Being a Bardolater (supreme lover of Shakespeare) is probably a must to feel this way about the folios--which Shakespeare himself never got to touch. They were edited and collected by Henry Condell and John Heminges, actor friends of Shakespeare's, at great personal cost, in terms of money and of time, and published in 1623. Shakespeare died in 1616. If you didn't know any of this (I did), then maybe this book isn't for you. If the thought of holding one and leafing through its pages makes you giddy, then it is. I bought a facsimile of the 1623 Folio at a consignment store for $38, which still feels like a bargain to me.
You'll learn how some of them were stolen, how some were returned, how some are missing, and how some have mysteriously disappeared. For example: Sir Thomas Phillipps, compulsive collector of tens of thousands of very old and very valuable books, had a son-in-law who was in the habit of cutting up very old and very valuable books and scrapbooking some of his snippets. (If this makes you recoil in horror, as it does me, you'll want to read this book.) Well, this made Phillipps horrified as well, so to make sure that this son-in-law (married to Phillipps's only child) wouldn't cut up and scrapbook anything in his collection, he had his entire vast library moved out of his mansion and moved into another, bigger, mansion, in 1863. He then had a will made up that said that nothing could be taken out of this second mansion, and that this son-in-law, and Phillipps's daughter, couldn't go into this mansion. For good measure, any Roman Catholic couldn't go in, either. (He had to do this because the first mansion hadn't been originally his, and his descendant had a will that didn't have these restrictions.) Furthermore:
--this mansion was so huge that he rode a horse from room to room.
--it was so huge that prepared food would be served cold because the kitchen was so far away from the dining room
--the book collection was so huge that Phillipps had to hire 175 men to drive 250 cart horses pulling 125 wagons to this vast collection 20 miles away. This took a few years.
And it didn't matter. Someone, probably the daughter or the son-in-law, stole the 1623 Folio anyway.
If the thought of a 1623 Folio being cut up and mutilated, and of a couple of these mutilations being scrapbooked, doesn't make you grit your teeth, Rasmussen's book isn't for you. Ditto, if you can't understand why someone would have so many books. I have a few thousand, none of them very valuable, so I can completely understand this.
Anyway, if owning a 1623 Folio just to own it, regardless of value, sounds super-awesome to you, read this book. It's a very fast and enjoyable read, at just 172 pages, minus acknowledgements and notes, which are sort of interesting as well. (The 1623 Folio, by comparison, had over 900 pages, and cost one pound--about 25% of the average worker's salary in 1623.)
But I thought it was interesting, and the author's fascination and joy of his subject also leaps off the page. He clearly loves what he does, and he is clearly very knowledgeable of what he does.
What is that, exactly? Well, he's a Shakespearean scholar, and an overall authority on the 1623 Folio, and its 250 or so copies out there. (He believes there are maybe 250 more out there, somewhere, possibly in boxes in libraries--or in somebody's attic.) His lifelong ambition: to very minutely survey and catalogue every single copy of the 1623 Folio. Why? Because they're frequently stolen, because even one in poor condition is worth a few million, and because...well, because he's sort of a fanatic about it. And I mean that in a very, very complimentary way. Had I the education of this stuff, and the time and the money, I would definitely join him on his travels. Though the whole waiting, and the dealing with people, I would have to leave to them.
I don't know how to explain the joy someone would have about reading stuff like this, except to maybe give you an example. I'm sort of a nut about very old baseball cards as well. The cream of the crop for such things is the 1909-1911 T206 Honus Wagner card, which even in poor condition is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. A very good one sold recently for seven million dollars. People are absolutely fanatic about this card. Many would steal it, if given the chance--and not for the money. Just for the chance to hold one. And to own one? Heaven. Bliss. I feel that, too. I saw one a few years ago at the New York Public Library in Manhattan. Someone thought it would be a great idea to paste that one to a scrapbook page, so that all anyone again would ever see of that card is the front of it. Not only does this greatly reduce its value, but it's not about the money--it's about the awesomeness of the card itself. If you can say, "So the hell what?" then maybe this book isn't for you. But if that makes you grind your teeth with frustration and anger, you'd enjoy this book.
Because the stories in this book about the trials and tribulations that people--and their folios--have undergone over the years matches the above example. People have stolen them just to have a copy. Just to hold it in their hands, to flip through the cloth pages, to...You get the idea. Being a Bardolater (supreme lover of Shakespeare) is probably a must to feel this way about the folios--which Shakespeare himself never got to touch. They were edited and collected by Henry Condell and John Heminges, actor friends of Shakespeare's, at great personal cost, in terms of money and of time, and published in 1623. Shakespeare died in 1616. If you didn't know any of this (I did), then maybe this book isn't for you. If the thought of holding one and leafing through its pages makes you giddy, then it is. I bought a facsimile of the 1623 Folio at a consignment store for $38, which still feels like a bargain to me.
You'll learn how some of them were stolen, how some were returned, how some are missing, and how some have mysteriously disappeared. For example: Sir Thomas Phillipps, compulsive collector of tens of thousands of very old and very valuable books, had a son-in-law who was in the habit of cutting up very old and very valuable books and scrapbooking some of his snippets. (If this makes you recoil in horror, as it does me, you'll want to read this book.) Well, this made Phillipps horrified as well, so to make sure that this son-in-law (married to Phillipps's only child) wouldn't cut up and scrapbook anything in his collection, he had his entire vast library moved out of his mansion and moved into another, bigger, mansion, in 1863. He then had a will made up that said that nothing could be taken out of this second mansion, and that this son-in-law, and Phillipps's daughter, couldn't go into this mansion. For good measure, any Roman Catholic couldn't go in, either. (He had to do this because the first mansion hadn't been originally his, and his descendant had a will that didn't have these restrictions.) Furthermore:
--this mansion was so huge that he rode a horse from room to room.
--it was so huge that prepared food would be served cold because the kitchen was so far away from the dining room
--the book collection was so huge that Phillipps had to hire 175 men to drive 250 cart horses pulling 125 wagons to this vast collection 20 miles away. This took a few years.
And it didn't matter. Someone, probably the daughter or the son-in-law, stole the 1623 Folio anyway.
If the thought of a 1623 Folio being cut up and mutilated, and of a couple of these mutilations being scrapbooked, doesn't make you grit your teeth, Rasmussen's book isn't for you. Ditto, if you can't understand why someone would have so many books. I have a few thousand, none of them very valuable, so I can completely understand this.
Anyway, if owning a 1623 Folio just to own it, regardless of value, sounds super-awesome to you, read this book. It's a very fast and enjoyable read, at just 172 pages, minus acknowledgements and notes, which are sort of interesting as well. (The 1623 Folio, by comparison, had over 900 pages, and cost one pound--about 25% of the average worker's salary in 1623.)
July 28, 2017
This is the memoir of a rare book expert who spent many years trying to track down and document all existing editions of Shakespeare's first folio - so expensive and prestigious that both in its time and now, it was owned by the kings and queens and celebrities, and has always been a target for thieves.
This book has an unedited feel to it - the order to the anecdotes seems randomly chosen, and there's no overarching structure. The author's voice has an earnest, nerdy enthusiasm. It works - it feels like you're standing next to him at the cocktail party, as he speaks off the cuff.
This book has an unedited feel to it - the order to the anecdotes seems randomly chosen, and there's no overarching structure. The author's voice has an earnest, nerdy enthusiasm. It works - it feels like you're standing next to him at the cocktail party, as he speaks off the cuff.
June 21, 2024
Not what I expected at all. I thought it was going to be quite a fun and exciting read about tracking down the Folios and the process of provenance investigation, but this turned out to be much more anecdotal and rather disjointed. There were some interesting tidbits peppered throughout the first half of the book, but otherwise I found it quite disengaging. I spent most of the last chapter wondering when I might have the opportunity to use 'moves like Jaggard' as a printing error joke. I *will* make it happen, I can't have read this book for nothing.
June 18, 2018
This is a wonderful collection of anecdotes that will delight any lover of Shakespeare's works, or anyone with an interest in books, rare or otherwise. As well as detailing the various thefts, frauds, mysterious disappearances and sale histories pertaining to the First Folios, the author shares the experiences of his team in tracking down each copy. It's written in an easy, engaging style and includes a very detailed appendix of sources.
December 15, 2018
This was an interesting addendum to the play “The Book of Will”, a play about the creation of the First Folio by Shakespeare’s friends and associates. I did not know about the existing copies of the First Folio nor did I know about the detailed survey of the known copies. This book is for a Shakespeare or rare book fan girl or fan boy. There are some very funny stories in the book about attempts to steal the books. Of course, the successful thefts have not been detected.
November 12, 2019
A fascinating book which describes the efforts of the author and his team to locate missing copies of the First Folio. I would have given it four stars but its appeal is limited. To enjoy this book it probably helps to be interested in Shakespeare, art crime, antiquarian books and to have a sense of humour. Some of the reports of the travels of a given Folio show hilarious insights into the people through whose hands these Folios passed, legitimately or otherwise.
September 4, 2022
I really enjoyed this book. I blame Sarah J Maas and Crescent City for the fact that it took me almost a month to finish it but it was a really interesting read. It got a little confusing occasionally but overall I felt that I learned a lot about original Shakespeare books and manuscripts in general. I enjoyed his writing style, and his anecdotes made me laugh and made the book personal. I feel that his passion really shines through. Also it is very well researched.
September 20, 2018
Interesting, entertaining, informative. This is a fantastic book. I learned about the Shakespeare First Folios and the author's search for them (along with a dedicated team of helpers). Each chapter tells the history of a particular folio and the search for it. Great book for anyone who wants to combine history, literature and mystery. Highly recommend.
October 10, 2021
An entertaining account of the stories behind some of the Shakespeare first folios regarding their history, provenance and occasional theft. Published in 1623, I had the good fortune to see a copy when the State Library of NSW in Sydney had their copy of display some years ago. What a magnificent volume!
September 9, 2023
In case it ever becomes rare or valuable I'd like to record for posterity that I legally obtained this hardback book in very good condition in a buy 3 under £10 get 1 free deal from World of Books. There are no clues about the identity of the former owner.
It's a great romp through various criminal acts that have been practiced upon The First Folio in its 400 year history.
It's a great romp through various criminal acts that have been practiced upon The First Folio in its 400 year history.
November 6, 2017
I found the format and theme of the book interesting. Who knew there could be so much history and intrigue about Shakespeare's folios of his works. I admit I skipped parts and others held my interest.
May 1, 2024
His friends published all his plays.
It took nine hundred pages.
Two hundred copies live today,
Preserved for all the ages.
It took nine hundred pages.
Two hundred copies live today,
Preserved for all the ages.
September 6, 2024
Fun little anecdotes about Shakespeare First Folios that were lost and found, stolen and defaced and recovered in history.
February 5, 2025
An interesting and fast read for any Shakespeare or book history nerd.
August 13, 2012
It is hardly debatable that the two most important publications in terms of modern English language are the King James Bible and the First Folio of Shakespeare. In 1623, two actors who had worked with Shakespeare sought to publish a collection of his work in order that the acting company could profit rather than the many knock offs that were circulating at the time. Only about 1,000 copies were printed, of those 232 remain accounted for. How do we know this? Because of the work of Eric Rasmussen and his crack team of Folio Hunters. Rasmussen formed his team in 1996 with the expressed aim of documenting as many surviving copies as possible and determining their provenance in the process. The Shakespeare Thefts can be looked at as a highlight reel of what they have been able to accomplish.
What they have done is to uncover “a fascinating world … populated with thieves, masterminds, fools, and eccentrics, all of whom have risked fortunes and reputations to possess a coveted First Folio.” What makes this book an enjoyable read is hearing these tales and the lengths they have gone to attain what is arguably the most famous book in the collecting world, such as, a nineteenth-century bricklayer who stole a Count’s personal copy and sold it for wrapping paper to shopkeepers, an accidental theft by a 20th century Pope, a shoe salesman disguised as a professor who stole one right out of a college reading room; and then there is my personal favorite involving a playboy living off stolen credit cards, Cubans, and the Folger Library. (I won’t spoil it. You have to read it to believe it.)
If this book has a flaw it is that there is little flow to the narrative. It reads as a series of stand alone essays with little if anything moving in a linear direction. There are many tales of books they feel are out there but that they have failed to find. As a reader I kept waiting for the author to get back to those stories and tell me they found this one or that one, but this never happens.
Overall though I can strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Shakespeare, or simply appreciates books for their own sake. It is a very quick read and by the end you will know more about how books are made, faked, stolen and retrieved than you did before. What more can you ask of a book.
What they have done is to uncover “a fascinating world … populated with thieves, masterminds, fools, and eccentrics, all of whom have risked fortunes and reputations to possess a coveted First Folio.” What makes this book an enjoyable read is hearing these tales and the lengths they have gone to attain what is arguably the most famous book in the collecting world, such as, a nineteenth-century bricklayer who stole a Count’s personal copy and sold it for wrapping paper to shopkeepers, an accidental theft by a 20th century Pope, a shoe salesman disguised as a professor who stole one right out of a college reading room; and then there is my personal favorite involving a playboy living off stolen credit cards, Cubans, and the Folger Library. (I won’t spoil it. You have to read it to believe it.)
If this book has a flaw it is that there is little flow to the narrative. It reads as a series of stand alone essays with little if anything moving in a linear direction. There are many tales of books they feel are out there but that they have failed to find. As a reader I kept waiting for the author to get back to those stories and tell me they found this one or that one, but this never happens.
Overall though I can strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Shakespeare, or simply appreciates books for their own sake. It is a very quick read and by the end you will know more about how books are made, faked, stolen and retrieved than you did before. What more can you ask of a book.
May 2, 2012
In 2008, the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. was approached by a man who wanted to have his copy of the First Folio authenticated. Raymond Rickett Scott, a British citizen, who claimed to have procured this copy in Cuba from one of Fidel Castro’s bodyguards, caused a bit of a sensation with this request. Even at the Folger, it’s not every day that someone just shows up out of the blue with a previously unknown copy of the First Folio.
The printing of Shakespeare’s First Folio in 1623 gave birth to somewhere between 750 and 1,000 copies of one of the most coveted rare books in the world. Now, almost 400 years later, only 232 copies are known to remain; and Shakespearean scholars, bibliophiles and collectors around the globe yearn to possess, examine, or simply be in the presence of a copy of this seminal work.
Eric Rasmussen, a noted Shakespearean scholar and a team of First Folio hunters have spent more than a decade traveling the world tracking down as many of these 232 copies as possible. Their goal was to create a definitive record of every existing First Folio, detailing page measurements, binding elements, and every single identifying watermark, tear, stain and bit of marginalia on each and every page.
The scholarly result of all that work is “The Shakespeare First Folios: a Descriptive Catalog,” an incredibly detailed and thoroughly exhaustive creation that is of invaluable assistance to scholars, book dealers, and researchers. The more entertaining result of all that work is “The Shakespeare Thefts,” a collection of accounts regarding the long history of deception, greed, obsession, and thievery that have surrounded the First Folio for centuries.
Rasmussen covers a fascinating history filled with compelling tales, from the eccentricities of First Folio owners to the numerous thefts to the copy unintentionally stolen by the Pope, “The Shakespeare Thefts” is sure to interest not just serious Shakespeare scholars but anyone with a taste for history and literature.
And that previously undiscovered copy presented at the Folger? Stolen. From Durham University in England in 1998, and identified by its unique measurements and a missing triangular piece of paper as distinctive as a fingerprint
The printing of Shakespeare’s First Folio in 1623 gave birth to somewhere between 750 and 1,000 copies of one of the most coveted rare books in the world. Now, almost 400 years later, only 232 copies are known to remain; and Shakespearean scholars, bibliophiles and collectors around the globe yearn to possess, examine, or simply be in the presence of a copy of this seminal work.
Eric Rasmussen, a noted Shakespearean scholar and a team of First Folio hunters have spent more than a decade traveling the world tracking down as many of these 232 copies as possible. Their goal was to create a definitive record of every existing First Folio, detailing page measurements, binding elements, and every single identifying watermark, tear, stain and bit of marginalia on each and every page.
The scholarly result of all that work is “The Shakespeare First Folios: a Descriptive Catalog,” an incredibly detailed and thoroughly exhaustive creation that is of invaluable assistance to scholars, book dealers, and researchers. The more entertaining result of all that work is “The Shakespeare Thefts,” a collection of accounts regarding the long history of deception, greed, obsession, and thievery that have surrounded the First Folio for centuries.
Rasmussen covers a fascinating history filled with compelling tales, from the eccentricities of First Folio owners to the numerous thefts to the copy unintentionally stolen by the Pope, “The Shakespeare Thefts” is sure to interest not just serious Shakespeare scholars but anyone with a taste for history and literature.
And that previously undiscovered copy presented at the Folger? Stolen. From Durham University in England in 1998, and identified by its unique measurements and a missing triangular piece of paper as distinctive as a fingerprint
August 3, 2016
When I saw the summary on the Early Reviewers request page I quickly jumped over to the "request" button. I studied English in college and absolutely loved renaissance literature, particularly Shakespeare, so I was excited to jump right in as soon as I received the book. Despite being quite familiar with Shakespeare's works, I never really knew much about the plays in physical form, if that makes sense; when I studied them, the folios and what the plays were written on rarely came up as it was the plays themselves that we concentrated on. This book opened my eyes to just how valuable the original folios are and all the mystery and intrigue that occurred as those books changed hands throughout the years. I found this incredibly interesting and was a bit disappointed that the book was less than two hundred pages because this is a subject I'd gladly have read much more about.
Reading this book I realized part of what made it so captivating for me: the author clearly loves what he does and that shows through in his writing. I liked all the personal anecdotes about his team's experiences as they worked on tracking down different copies of the folios. While I do realize that frequently Rasmussen gives his own opinions about what could have happened in the past rather than cold hard facts about missing copies, I didn't find this to be a problem and thought it made the book more accessible to a wider audience than if it had been more scholarly.
There are only two real flaws I could see with the book. The first is that it is just a sort of introduction into the subject. It isn't particularly in depth and the author does include a lot of personal opinions and speculations, but I do think this to be a really good introduction. It ensnared me and has me wanting to find out more on the subject, anyway! The other problem is that the book was somewhat disjointed; maybe with a bit more editing, the chapters could have fit better together or something like that. Regardless of these two flaws, I really enjoyed this book and I'll give it 4 stars.
Reading this book I realized part of what made it so captivating for me: the author clearly loves what he does and that shows through in his writing. I liked all the personal anecdotes about his team's experiences as they worked on tracking down different copies of the folios. While I do realize that frequently Rasmussen gives his own opinions about what could have happened in the past rather than cold hard facts about missing copies, I didn't find this to be a problem and thought it made the book more accessible to a wider audience than if it had been more scholarly.
There are only two real flaws I could see with the book. The first is that it is just a sort of introduction into the subject. It isn't particularly in depth and the author does include a lot of personal opinions and speculations, but I do think this to be a really good introduction. It ensnared me and has me wanting to find out more on the subject, anyway! The other problem is that the book was somewhat disjointed; maybe with a bit more editing, the chapters could have fit better together or something like that. Regardless of these two flaws, I really enjoyed this book and I'll give it 4 stars.
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