Collecting Shakespeare: The Story of Henry and Emily Folger

by Stephen H. Grant

Overview

In Collecting Shakespeare, Stephen H. Grant recounts the American success story of Henry and Emily Folger of Brooklyn, a couple who were devoted to each other, in love with Shakespeare, and bitten by the collecting bug.

Shortly after marrying in 1885, the Folgers started buying, cataloging, and storing all manner of items about Shakespeare and his era. Emily earned a master's degree in Shakespeare studies. The frugal couple worked passionately as a tight-knit team during the Gilded Age, financing their hobby with the fortune Henry earned as president of Standard Oil Company of New York, where he was a trusted associate of John D. Rockefeller Sr.

While a number of American universities offered to house the collection, the Folgers wanted to give it to the American people. Afraid the price of antiquarian books would soar if their names were revealed, they secretly acquired prime real estate on Capitol Hill near the Library of Congress. They commissioned the design and construction of an elegant building with a reading room, public exhibition hall, and the Elizabethan Theatre. The Folger Shakespeare Library was dedicated on the Bard's birthday, April 23, 1932.

The library houses 82 First Folios, 275,000 books, and 60,000 manuscripts. It welcomes more than 100,000 visitors a year and provides professors, scholars, graduate students, and researchers from around the world with access to the collections. It is also a vibrant center in Washington, D.C., for cultural programs, including theater, concerts, lectures, and poetry readings.

The library provided Grant with unprecedented access to the primary sources within the Folger vault. He draws on interviews with surviving Folger relatives and visits to 35 related archives in the United States and in Britain to create a portrait of the remarkable couple who ensured that Shakespeare would have a beautiful home in America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421411873
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	04/26/2014
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 6.10(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Stephen H. Grant is a senior fellow at the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training and author of Peter Strickland: New London Shipmaster, Boston Merchant, First Consul to Senegal.

Table of Contents

Prologue ix

Acknowledgments xv

1 Well Read in Poetry, Fair in Knowledge: Henry and Emily Form a Team 1

2 Thou Lovest Me, My Name Is Will: Smitten by Shakespeare 27

3 Wise, Circumspect, and Trusted: Five Decades at Standard Oil 43

4 Leading on to Fortune: Henry Invests to Buy the Bard 65

5 The Hunt Is Up, the Fields Are Fragrant: Building a Collection 75

6 Whole Volumes in Folio: The Ultimate Prize for Collectors 95

7 What News on the Rialto: Maneuvers in the Rare Book Market 108

8 Hotspur and Hal: Two Henrys Compete 125

9 A Monument to Gentle Verse: Designing a Treasure House 139

10 Dear, Blessed Plot of Land: The Folgers' Gift to America 163

Epilogue: Praise in the Eyes of Posterity: The Folger after the Folgers 187

Appendix: Directors of the Folger Shakespeare Library 207

Notes 209

Bibliography 225

Index 235

What People are Saying About This

Gail Kern Paster

The fascinating story of these two Shakespeare-loving Americans and the great rare-book library they founded... will be welcomed by lovers of Shakespeare, students of twentieth-century American culture, and early English printed books alike.

Stanley Wells

In this thoroughly documented and illuminatingly illustrated joint biography, Stephen Grant makes a fascinating contribution to the intellectual and cultural history of their time.

John F. Andrews

This book will fill a major gap in our understanding of how one of America's most influential institutions came to be, and it will be welcomed by what the 1623 Folio describes as a 'great Variety of Readers.'

Debby Applegate

This charming and compelling tale of a literary obsession brings the Folgers back to life and serves as an important reminder of the incredibly rare and rich resources that lie hidden in the Folger Shakespeare Library.

From the Publisher

This indispensable volume explains how one of America's most influential institutions came to be, and it will continue to be enjoyed by those the compilers of the 1623 First Folio addressed as 'the great Variety of Readers.'
—John F. Andrews, OBE, President, The Shakespeare Guild

The story of these two Shakespeare-loving Americans and the great rare-book library they founded is a fascinating one for lovers of Shakespeare, for students of twentieth-century American culture, and for anyone interested in the history of books.
—Gail Kern Paster, CBE, Director Emerita, Folger Shakespeare Library

In this thoroughly documented and illuminatingly illustrated joint biography, Stephen Grant makes a fascinating contribution to the intellectual and cultural history of their time.
—Stanley Wells, CBE, Honorary President, The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon

This charming and compelling tale of a literary obsession brings the Folgers back to life and serves as an important reminder of the incredibly rare and rich resources that lie hidden in the Folger Shakespeare Library.
—Debby Applegate, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher

Editorial Reviews

While Collecting Shakespeare is biography intertwined with technicalities of antiquarian book and artifact collecting, it undoubtedly belongs on the Shakespeare lover's bookshelf.

Theatre Journal - Felicia Hardison Londre

Grant's text is indeed well-researched and written, in a snappish and easily-readable style, even though there are many details.

Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature - Jeffery Moser

Stephen H. Grant tells the story of the Folgers' joint obsession clearly and efficiently; the illustrations he reproduces are particularly engaging. . . Shakespeareans, book collectors and all who have worked at the Library and who love and admire it will enjoy Collecting Shakespeare.

Times Literary Supplement - H.R. Woudhuysen

This first biography of Emily Jordan Folger and Henry C. Folger. . . taps hitherto neglected resources to trace their joint obsession with collecting Shakespeare.

Choice

This thoroughly researched and accessibly written book is first of all a fascinating biography of how a man and his wife devoted their lives to gathering the world's largest collection of the original folios of William Shakespeare, plus a range of literature from as early as 1500. It is also a meditation on why some museums endure and thrive, while others lapse into confusion and decay.

Washington Times - James Srodes

. . . A good read. . .

Chronique d'Égypte

Stephen H. Grant uses primary sources from within the Folger Library vault, interviews with the Folger family, and visits to nearly three dozen archives to craft a compelling narrative. . . This biography could be read as a perfect case study of how a cultural institution in 20th century America was conceived, created, and accomplished. It will delight students of Washington’s early 20th century history and readers who are seeking background on the impact of the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Washington History

An engrossing read . . . Grant has written an illuminating book that artfully places Henry and Emily Folger in their own time while showing how they helped to shape the scholarship of ours.

Renaissance Quarterly

Grant provides not just a biography of the 'onlie begetters' of this astonishing library, but also an account of the worlds in which the Folgers lived. The result is a superlative book . . . Crisply written and packed with facts and anecdotes.

Washington Post - Michael Dirda

"... A good read..."

Chronique d'Égypte

. . . A good read. . .
--Chronique d'Égypte

An engrossing read . . . Grant has written an illuminating book that artfully places Henry and Emily Folger in their own time while showing how they helped to shape the scholarship of ours.
--Renaissance Quarterly

Stephen H. Grant uses primary sources from within the Folger Library vault, interviews with the Folger family, and visits to nearly three dozen archives to craft a compelling narrative. . . This biography could be read as a perfect case study of how a cultural institution in 20th century America was conceived, created, and accomplished. It will delight students of Washington's early 20th century history and readers who are seeking background on the impact of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
--Washington History

This first biography of Emily Jordan Folger and Henry C. Folger. . . taps hitherto neglected resources to trace their joint obsession with collecting Shakespeare.
--Choice

Grant provides not just a biography of the 'onlie begetters' of this astonishing library, but also an account of the worlds in which the Folgers lived. The result is a superlative book . . . Crisply written and packed with facts and anecdotes.
--Michael Dirda, Washington Post

Grant's text is indeed well-researched and written, in a snappish and easily-readable style, even though there are many details.
--Jeffery Moser, Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature

Stephen H. Grant tells the story of the Folgers' joint obsession clearly and efficiently; the illustrations he reproduces are particularly engaging. . . Shakespeareans, book collectors and all who have worked at the Library and who love and admire it will enjoy Collecting Shakespeare.
--H.R. Woudhuysen, Times Literary Supplement

This thoroughly researched and accessibly written book is first of all a fascinating biography of how a man and his wife devoted their lives to gathering the world's largest collection of the original folios of William Shakespeare, plus a range of literature from as early as 1500. It is also a meditation on why some museums endure and thrive, while others lapse into confusion and decay.
--James Srodes, Washington Times

While Collecting Shakespeare is biography intertwined with technicalities of antiquarian book and artifact collecting, it undoubtedly belongs on the Shakespeare lover's bookshelf.
--Felicia Hardison Londre, Theatre Journal

From the Publisher