The Shakespeare First Folio
The History of the Book
Volume I: An Account of the First Folio Based on its Sales and Prices, 1623-2000
Anthony James West
Price: £112.00 (hardback)
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-818769-1
Publication date: 5 April 2001
240 pages, 5 halftones & 5 line illus, 234x156 mm
A sample of this book is available in PDF format
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Ordering |
Individual customers may:
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Manufactured on Demand - stock will be supplied on a firm sale basis within 28 days
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| Reviews |
| - 'The first volume is a mine of information filled with tables, charts, appendices, and just about all a student could want for getting into the history of the First Folio's afterlife.' - Review, 25
- 'I believe West's study of the First Folio will become, when completed, a model of how one does post-publication book history. I look forward with anticipation to the next three volumes.' - Review, 25
- 'The first volume of 'The First Folio Series' provides much information, but it also whets our appetite for the next volumes. If West means to go on as he has started then these four volumes will become the most comprehensive study of any single edition of a secular author ever produced. Shakespearians and book history scholars should immediately get it on their shelves.' - Notes and Queries
- 'An amazing piece of scholarship ... West's study is the first comprehensive study of the book as book and as cultural object. One wonders why we had to wait nearly four centuries for such a study.' - Notes and Queries
- 'In addition to providing a thorough and well-documented study exploring condition, pedigree, annotation, and prices of the first folio, West also provides extensive information for research and reference.... And he includes anecdotes--for example,...Fulford Adams's remark when Henry Folger approached him about buying a folio edition: 'It is something to have one.' This...sentiment could apply
to West's book...' - Choice
- 'In addition to its economical and readable narrative, First Folio
is chockablock with citations, entries, tables, appendices, and colourful anecdotes that fully flesh the market career of the book which is the single most influential document in the history of Western literature. There is also a delightful preface by Professor Stanley Wells, our greatest living Shakespearean scholar ...
First Folio
sets a lofty standard of patient, painstaking scholarship.
' - Social History Society Bulletin
- 'Impeccably researched and thoughtfully written ... This book is stuffed with charming titbits.' - Social History Society Bulletin
- 'Genuinely monumental ... Through a combination of careful archival research and tireless legwork, West has located 228 copies - a remarkable 70 more than were listed in Sidney Lee's 1902 Census ... This is an essential reference work for Shakespeareans, librarians, book-collectors, and antiquarian book dealers ... a monumental achievement.' - Eric Rasmussen, Shakespeare Survey
- 'An exceptionally engaging study.... West's account is so admirably concise that it's quite impossible to reduce it here; at the same time, it's full of fascinating and pointed observation.... It would be hard to imagine a better opening to the enterprise West has undertaken.' - Studies in English Literature 1500-1900
- 'The contribution West's book makes to our knowledge of this freak of bibliographic, literary and economic history is enormous.' - London Review of Books
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| Description | | - A major contribution to studies of the History of the Book, this volume inaugurates a projected 4-volume series which will present the 'biography' of the First Folio
- For Shakespeare scholars, librarians, and book-collectors alike, the Shakespeare First Folio is of pre-eminent importance. For the first time this series will profile every aspect of its history in scholarly detail
- The sales and price history of the Folio down the centuries provides fascinating insights into economic history and into the history of Shakespeare's reputation in the English-speaking culture
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The Shakespeare First Folio is arguably the greatest book ever written in the English language, and it is the only source for half the plays (including Macbeth
and The Tempest
). Vast amounts have been written on it up to its publication - for example on its printing and proofreading - but very little since it left the press in 1623. And yet its story is a highly significant contribution
to the history of the book worldwide, and crucial to the study of Shakespeare's 'afterlives'.
The present volume breaks new ground in its account of the price and sales history of the books - from one pound in the seventeenth century to over half a million pounds today - placing this in the context both of Shakespeare's standing and of the contemporary world of antiquarian book sales. It
charts the number and distribution of copies at the beginning and end of the twentieth century, surveys the nineteen facsimile editions since 1807, and assesses earlier listings of the work since 1824, including Sidney Lee's Census
(1902). It also indicates the history of the volumes' ownership - ranging from counry parson to President of Standard Oil.
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Readership: Shakespeare scholars; bibliographers, book collectors, and book dealers; historians of the book and of drama; economic historians.
| Contents |
Foreword
,
Stanley Wells
General Preface
Preface to Volume I
List of Tables
List of Charts
List of Illustrations
Abbreviations and References
Short Titles
1.
Sales and Prices of First Folios: A History from 1623 to the Present
2.
The Number and Distribution of First Folios Worldwide, 1902 and 2000
3.
A Survey of First Folio Facsimiles since the Early 19th Century
4.
Listings of the First Folio since the Early 19th Century
Concordances of Lee/West and West/Lee copy numbers
List of Manuscripts and Printed Works Consulted
Index
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| Authors, editors,
and contributors |
Anthony James West
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The specification in this catalogue, including without
limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations,
and month of publication, was as accurate as
possible at the time the catalogue was compiled.
Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we
are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory.
Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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