Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Grant, Stephen H., 1941-

Title Collecting Shakespeare : the story of Henry and Emily Folger / Stephen H. Grant
Published Baltimore : The Johns Hopkins University Press, [2014]
©2014

Copies

Description 1 online resource
Contents Well read in poetry, fair in knowledge : Henry and Emily form a team -- Thou lovest me, my name is Will : smitten by Shakespeare -- Wise, circumspect, and trusted : five decades at Standard Oil -- Leading on to fortune : Henry invests to buy the bard -- The hunt is up, the fields are fragrant : building a collection -- Whole volumes in folio : the ultimate prize for collectors -- What news on the Rialto : maneuvers in the rare book market -- Hotspur and Hal : two Henrys compete -- A monument to gentle verse : designing a treasure house -- Dear, blessed plot of land : the Folgers' gift to America -- Epilogue. Praise in the eyes of prosperity : the Folger after the Folgers -- Appendix: directors of the Folger Shakespeare Library
Summary 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
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Folger, Henry Clay, 1857-1930.
Folger, Emily C. J. (Emily Clara Jordan), 1858-1936.
Folger, Henry Clay, 1857-1930 -- Library
Folger, Emily C. J. (Emily Clara Jordan), 1858-1936 -- Library
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Bibliography.
SUBJECT Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Bibliography
Folger, Emily C. J. (Emily Clara Jordan), 1858-1936 -- Library
Folger, Henry Clay, 1857-1930 -- Library
Folger, Emily C. J. (Emily Clara Jordan), 1858-1936
Folger, Henry Clay, 1857-1930
Folger, Emily C. J. (Emily Clara Jordan), 1858-1936 fast
Folger, Henry Clay, 1857-1930 fast
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 fast
Folger, Henry Clay 1857-1930 gnd
Subject Folger Shakespeare Library -- History
SUBJECT Folger Shakespeare Library fast
Folger Shakespeare Library Washington, D.C. gnd
Subject Book collectors -- New York (State) -- Biography
Private libraries -- New York (State) -- History
Research libraries -- Washington (D.C.) -- History
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- General.
LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES -- Library & Information Science -- Archives & Special Libraries.
Book collectors
Libraries
Private libraries
Research libraries
Bibliophiles Buch
Privatbibliothek
New York (State)
Washington (D.C.)
Genre/Form Bibliographies
Biographies
History
Biographies.
Biographies.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781421411880
1421411881