The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-24
RICH MANS HOBBY E IN COLLECTING SHAKESPEARIANA
Folger Has One Of Finest Old Libraries In
 World

~ NEW YORK. Aug. 22,-He dosen't
 look at all like noted photographer. That hackneyed expression that some
 times comes from long and tedious ; study of literature is totally lacking. He hasn't lost his sense of humor. h. ] stead, he is a man short of stature, past middle age, with pair of dark eyes
 that twinkle humorously at you from . beneath shock of iron-gray hair. He 7 is seated alone in the study of his icountry home.
 .a4 Thus, Henry Clay Folger, Jr.. for
 ner president of the Standard Oil [ Company of New York, doesn't corres- ] pond with the stereotyped impression
 of a noted bibliographer. And, fur thermore, it is unusual to find the head
 of one of the worlds largest corpora itions having as his pet hobby the col :; lection of the works of William Shakes peare. But Mir. Folger has selected this as his particular form of diversion
 from office routine and he has done it { with such zest and thoroughness that < he now has one of the finest, rarest and most valuable collections of
 Shakespeare in the world.
 Object Of Collection
 'g Mir. Folger has successfully labored
 
 ticns of one of the worlds greatest
 authors. His object in collecting
 Shakespeare, he says is to give the gene
 rations yet to come a better working
 knowledge and understanding of Will
 liam Shakespeare and the sliterary
 works of the Seventeenth century. ' Whether Mir. Folger will ultimately
 donate his wonderful collection to
 some library is matter that he is said to be considering. No matter what he does with his books, Mir. Fol gers collection of Shakespeare is to- day universally considered a priceless gem.
 Mir. Folger resigned his position with ! the Standard Oil Company about a 1 year ago so that he could devote more time to the study of Shakespeare. He is graduate of Adelphi College and | torty-five years ago. Shortly after his | graduation he entered the employ of | Charles Pratt, for whom he worked as a clerk and at the same time studied | law at Columbia University.
 In quaint old-fashioned house, close to the Nassau club at Glen Cove. MT. and Mrs. Folger have their sum mer home. The interior of the house is attractively furnished and several of the rooms have been set aside as studies, where they both can get away from the cares of the outside world and devote themselves wholly to the works of, Shakespeare. Both Mir. and Mrs. Folger are retiring people and never like to talk about their own accomplish ments, and 1t was with difficulty that they were persuaded to tell something Q fthe discoveries they have made their long and industrious study of Shake epeare and his works.
 Doubt Of Authorship
 Many people hold to the theory that never wrote Shakespeare and maintain that Sir Francis Bacon is the author. '
 MT. and Mrs. Folger are convinced ( from their long and exhaustive study that Shakespeare is responsible for the works which bear his name. They 1 agree that Shakespeare wrote Shake speare." { In discussing the authorship of these books, Mrs. Folger said 'In the last l two hundred years more than three [ thousand literary men and women have | devoted themselves to the production c of books dealing with Shakespeare and " his works. Sir Sidney Lee estimated that not less than six million such vol il Hmes were published during the Nine Eeenth century. This past November n vas the three hundredth anniversary of i, he registration of the first edition of f, shakespeare's plays, and shortly there fl liter the book came out. At the pres T mt time in England there are 43 . Enown copies of this first edition in 2 public and private possession and Sir b Sidney Lee has asked that all these ., collections be placed. ? The finished first folio of Shake ssi lpeare contains sos pages of 66,o00 o o ines printed in double columns. The - paper it is printed on is of the best ~ " Inown quality and the book is bound 9 . 2 calf. The issue was not less than t' i've hundred or more than one thousand ~ '. ;opies. ol