Foliomania!

Book excerpt: Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, first published in 1623, is among the most studied books in the English language. As the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays, the First Folio largely established Shakespeare's canon and saved from loss eighteen plays that had not previously appeared in print, among them The Tempest, Measure for Measure, and Macbeth. The revival of Shakespeare's work in the 18th century inspired a mania to own a copy of this rare book--"foliomania"--that has extended into the 21st century. Accompanying the exhibition "Fame, Fortune, and Theft: The Shakespeare First Folio," Foliomanio tells stories about the collectors who have possessed a copy of the First Folio and what this iconic book has meant to readers over the years.