A Census of the Beaumont and Fletcher First Folio: Comedies and Tragedies (London, 1947)

By:
Dr David Rush Miller
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The Shakespeare First Folio (1623) was printed in an edition of 1000 copies. The Beaumont and Fletcher First Folio (1647)was printed in a edition of 2500 copies. Unlike the Shakespeare Folio, the Beaumont and Fletcher Folio had not one but eight contributing printers. My research has collected information from close to 250 libraries world-wide, concening the number of surviving copies, general condition, "first" or "second" state of the frontispiece and other variations. My 30-minute presentation will be a presentation of and the leading of a discussion on the results of this research.


Keywords: Edition, Binding, Frontispiece, State, Press Variants
Stream: Books, Writing and Reading
Presentation Type: 30 minute Paper Presentation in English
Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Dr David Rush Miller

Professor, English & Chair, Humanities Division, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Hawaii
Hilo, Hawaii, UNITED STATES

I have had the great good fortune since 1966 to be Professor of English Literature at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, teaching a broad range of courses in both Medieval and Renaissance poetry and drama, including Chaucer and Shakespeare. While I was at Tulane 1974-76 working on my PhD, I was invited to New Haven to stay with Maynard Mack for the annual Shakespeare Association Convention. While in New Haven I found a copy of the Beaumont and Fletcher First Folio (London 1647) in an antiquarian bookshop. I bought the folio and over the intervening years I have been conducting a census of surviving copies of this book(please see my proposal.) I live with my wife, children and grandchldren in a 102 year-old plantation house in the midst of a
former sugar plantation.

Ref: B06P0166