Buffalo's rare Shakespeare folio has a storied past
Librarian recounts tale of a swap after another first folio is recovered
The recovery in Washington, D. C., of a stolen first folio of Shakespeare plays has spurred the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library to bring out its copy of the same volume, printed in 1623 and one of only 228 still in existence.
And it’s giving rare books librarian Elaine A. Barone the rare opportunity to spin an intriguing yarn about how the bound, pristine 902-page compilation came to Buffalo nearly a century ago in a swap with the founder of the Capitol’s Folger Shakespeare Library, where the pilfered copy turned up recently.
Police in Durham, in northwest England, questioned a 51-year-old man last week after the volume stolen from Durham University in 1998 was recovered with the help of experts at the Folger.
According to a Washington Post story carried in Saturday’s Buffalo News, a mysterious man with a British accent showed up at the Capitol Hill museum several weeks ago with the valuable book — the first collection of the Bard’s 36 plays, published seven years after his death.
The man asked library experts if it was a genuine and important volume, the Post said. Instead the FBI was contacted, and Durham authorities were notified by the British Embassy in Washington. The recovered book is said to be worth about $2.5 million.
The article reminded Barone, manager of the Buffalo library’s humanities division, of the Folger link to Buffalo’s first folio.
Early in 20th century, Col. Charles Clifton, who headed Pierce Arrow Motor Car Co., asked a New York City book dealer to tip him off if a Shakespeare first folio came on the market, Barone said. One did, and the Buffalo industrialist snapped it up for $2,000.
It turned out that Clifton had narrowly beaten Henry Clay Folger, a wealthy oilman and Shakespeare collector, to the dealer’s doorstep.
Folger coveted Clifton’s copy, although it was in less-than- perfect condition, because one of the first leaves bore the hand-printed name of Samuel Gilburn, a member of Shakespeare’s original acting company. The other actors, who had joined Gilburn in publishing the folio as a tribute to the playwright, were listed in type.
That made Clifton’s folio — about 1,000 were published in the 17th century — unique, Barone said.
There followed a prolonged negotiation in which Folger repeatedly offered money for the Gilburn folio, but Clifton insisted on trading for Folger’s copy, which was in much better shape. Folger finally gave in, and his volume, for which he had paid $8,000, was swapped for Clifton’s.
Barone imagines that Clifton believed he had outfoxed his rival collector.
Folger, who founded the Washington library in 1932 with his wife, Emily Jordan Folger, as a gift to the American people, “spent a good part of his life collecting Shakespeare material,” Barone said, “but Clifton was a pretty good negotiator.”
Clifton, who was president of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, parent of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, from 1918 to 1928, donated the Shakespeare folio to the Buffalo library in 1924. It was last shown in the Central Library’s Rare Books Room about six years ago.
The book “is a very significant piece of literature” because it included 16 Shakespeare plays that had never been published.
To illustrate the point, she opened the folio to the page titled “Twelfe Night, Or What You Will.” Just below is one of the most famous opening lines in English literature: “If music be the food of life, play on.”
“Why would someone pay millions for a book? Well, you’re looking at ‘Twelfth Night’ exactly as it first appeared in print for the first time,” Barone said.
In addition to the Shakespeare folio, visitors to the Central Library, One Lafayette Square, can view a leaf of the Gutenburg Bible, a 15th century illuminated manuscript, a 1498 script from Italy, a 1763 Baskerville Bible and an 18th century Coptic bible.
The exhibit, on display from 8:30 a. m. to 6 p. m. Monday to Saturday through the end of August, coincides with Typecon 2008, a conference of 400 people involved in creating and marketing of computer typefaces, meeting through Sunday in the Hyatt Regency Buffalo.
