Greg Doran Seeks 200+ Shakespeare Folios Worldwide
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Antony Sher wrote diaries during the six months before his death from liver cancer in December 2021, which form the first part of the book.
- Greg Doran stepped down as artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company after Sher’s death and, in 2023, launched a global quest to locate over 200 extant copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio.
- Folio Roadshow took Doran to Britain, North America, Japan, South Africa and the Antipodes, where he examined individual copies, noting variations such as the Skipton edition’s missing comedies.
- Vatican incident in 1964 saw a First Folio copy mistakenly gifted to a cardinal, prompting the Archbishop of Westminster to intervene and retrieve the book.
- King Charles invited Doran to view the Windsor First Folio in the Royal Library, where the king has personal notes on passages like Henry V.
- Folger Library in Washington holds 82 of the surviving First Folios, which Doran visited as part of his quest.
Why it matters: Fans of Shakespeare and readers of memoirs gain a rare glimpse into both the personal loss of Antony Sher and the global rarity of the First Folio, while the book underscores the cultural importance of preserving these precious texts for future generations.
