ARCHIVE: English Literature's Rarest Book to Be Sold; Shakespeare's First Folio Is Expected to Cause a Bidding Frenzy When It Goes to Auction,

Byline: Richard Edmonds

The most important book in English literature, the First Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, could fetch more than pounds 3 million when it is auctioned.

The rare volume will be offered for sale in Sotheby's English Literature and History sale in London in July.

Published in 1613, seven years after Shakespeare's death, this seminal volume contains a total of 36 plays, 18 of which had never previously been printed. Had it not been for their appearance in the First Folio they might have been lost forever.

Some 750 copies were printed - a large amount for the time - and about one-third of these survive, but they are mostly incomplete.

The copy Sotheby's will be selling is remarkably untouched in a mid 17th century binding and …

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Publication information: Article title: ARCHIVE: English Literature's Rarest Book to Be Sold; Shakespeare's First Folio Is Expected to Cause a Bidding Frenzy When It Goes to Auction,. Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: The Birmingham Post (England). Publication date: April 29, 2006. Page number: 47. © 2009 Birmingham Post & Mail Ltd. COPYRIGHT 2006 Gale Group.

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