The Shakespeare Thefts

“[Rasmussen] has unearthed wonderful anecdotes of theft, fraud, and the peculiar mania of passionate bibliophiles.” —Stephen Greenblatt, Pulitzer Prize–winning author

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, fourteen were subsequently stolen—and only two of these were ever recovered.

In his efforts to catalog all these precious First Folios, renowned Shakespeare scholar Eric Rasmussen embarked on a riveting journey around the globe, involving run-ins with heavily tattooed criminal street gangs in Tokyo, bizarre visits with eccentric, reclusive billionaires, and intense battles of wills with secretive librarians. He explores the intrigue surrounding the Earl of Pembroke, arguably Shakespeare's boyfriend, to whom the First Folio is dedicated and whose personal copy is still missing. He investigates the uncanny sequence of events in which a wealthy East Coast couple drowned in a boating accident and the next week their First Folio appeared for sale in Kansas. We hear about Folios that were censored, the pages ripped out of them, about a volume that was marked in red paint—or is it blood?—on every page; and of yet another that has a bullet lodged in its pages.

“An enjoyable literary detective story . . . Shakespeare himself would have enjoyed each of the tales recorded in this diverting book.” —The Wall Street Journal

“A gripping narrative.” —The Washington Post

“Witty and entertaining . . . this is a gloriously geeky book.” —The Literary Review