The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1888-01-04
A HIGH PRICED VOLUME.
How Edwin Forrest Secured a Copy OF
the 1923 Edition OF shakespeare.

How Edwin Forrest Secured a Copy Of
the 1923 Edition OF Shakespeare.
"a notice which | saw the other day,
that Messrs. Funk & Wagnalls are about
publishing a fac simile edition OF the 1928
folio edition OF Shakespeare, reminds me
OF how Edwin Forrest bought his 623
copy Of Shakespeare, " said a Philadelph!s
gentleman at the Hoffman house one
evening. Il was connected with the auc-
ton house OF VI. Thomas * Sons, In Phil
adelphia. for a number of years, and For
rest used TO come in the store a great deal
and ~patronize the book sales. He seldom
did any bidding himself, but used to tell
Mr.. Jennings, Of the firm, aud n life long
friend OF the actors, 10 buy certain books
for him. He never left any limit TO his
bids. but always said simply buy them.
II the a%uctioneer thought a book was
bringing much more than its value, and
i'm Mr.. Forests interests let IL 90, the Dig
actor would storm md rave the next time
he came In, and declare that he would
never buy another book in the place II his
orders were not carried out to the letter.
sBIt what | started To tell you was
about the famous old 1923 edition OF
shakespeare. You know there are only
n few copies in the world, and they are
of great value, of course. Well, we hau
a copy for sale one day, and it was SO well
advertised, not only in this country, but
elsewhere, that agents from libraries III
England and other countries crossed the
ocean 10 buy it. The day before the sale
Forrest walked into the store and aid 4"
Mr.. Jennings:
81 want that Shakespeare. Buy IL
"sHow high will you go2' asked Mr.
Jennings.
"'How highs don't know and | don't
care. Buy il. | want it,
..Then Forrest stalked out without say
ing another word. The next day, when
the big folio was put up for sale, there
was some lively bidding. Thu startng
price WAS 800 by IN t.nglishman, and II
| was not long before it reached $500.
" Seven hundred and Itty dOllarsV at
last shouted the Englishman who hal
| started the boob at 800.
And 500 / have already, said the
| a%uctioneer, with a smile.
"'Nho did you get the bid rom /
don't see any one else bidding now Saii
the Englishman.
"a gentleman left the bid with me.
"'Nyho was itp
med Forrest
THAT settles it,, said the bidder. III
| Forrest wants that book there Is no use
! bidding against him. He'd give s5O,OOO
for it rather than not get II. I'm through
bidding
The a~uctioneer tried to get another
bid, but without success, and at last his
hammer fell and the Shakespeare belonged
TO Forrest. The actor was delighted the
next day with his prize. He took 1t to
his mansion on North Broad street and
had u glusscase made for it. IL was placed
in this case open at the title page and no
one was allowed to touch it. Forrest bad
a fac-simile copy which he read. He gave
orders that if ever his house should get
on fire the 1923 Shakespeare was to be
the first thing saved. lie had a magnil-
cent Shakespearean library, but the big
folio bc considered was worth more than
all the rest put together. a curious
thing happened after Forrest died. y
defective due caused a little fire in his
| library, and about the only thing Of value
| that was burned was that very 1923 edi-
ton that he priced 50 highly. New
| York Evening Sun.