Seven years after William Shakespeare died, one of the world’s most important books was published: a collection of thirty-six plays that we now call the “First Folio.” Without the First Folio, we would not have Julius Caesar, Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, or two plays that have profoundly changed the way that I think , Measure for Measure and Twelfth Night. We also wouldn’t have the iconic stage direction, “Exit, pursued by a bear” (The Winter’s Tale).  As Georgia Tech phases out its physical library, and as  the world celebrates the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death with a First Folio tour, this course will investigate what the First Folio affords us in the twenty-first century.

Christie’s staff member, Photo credit: Kirsty Wigglesworth