From the Folcher Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited. I'm Michael Whitmore, the

Fulcher's director. The Fulger is known, maybe more than anything else, for our remarkable collection

of first folios, copies of the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays printed in 1623.

The Fulcher's collection is the largest in the the world with 82 copies, and so we have a

rare attachment to this book, especially in 2016 when we are touring the first folios to all 50 states,

Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico to honor Shakespeare on the 400th anniversary of his death.

Much of the scholarship around the first folio focuses on its role in preserving Shakespeare for

posterity, and in her new book, The Making of Shakespeare's First Folio, Emma Smith certainly

does that. But she does something different, too, because this is not a book about the first

folio's legacy. Instead, it book about the first folio's legacy.

Instead, it's about the first folio's creation.

In her book, Dr. Smith, a professor of Shakespeare studies at Oxford, offers an intimate

step-by-step examination of how the first folio was conceived, how Shakespeare's plays were

gathered, how the rights for them were obtained, how Shakespeare's plays were gathered, how the rights for them

were obtained, how the book was laid out, and, most vividly, how it was assembled and printed.

By taking the time to look at the first folio as a physical object, Dr. Smith provides an important

window into the human story behind the process of creating books in 17th century England.

She shares that with us now in a podcast we call This Precious Book.

Emma Smith is interviewed by Neva Grant.

There's so many people who absolutely love Shakespeare, but who might not still understand

why the first folio is so important.

So tell us why it is.

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