The Folio Society: Celebrating 400 years of William Shakespeare
BY READERS DIGEST
26th Sep 2023 Culture
8 min read
To mark the 400th anniversary of the
registration of William Shakespeare’s First Folio in 1623, The
Folio Society have crafted 1,000 landmark limited editions of Shakespeare’s The
Complete Plays, each hand-numbered and signed by the charming artist and
illustrator, Neil Packer
Featuring an introduction and foreward by Dame Judi Dench
and Gregory Doran, each copy has been meticulously hand-crafted by passionate,
artisan bookmakers, using techniques established in Shakespeare’s lifetime and
bound in 16th century blackwork embroidery by Stephen Walters &
Sons.
The set will be published in three volumes: comedies;
histories; tragedies and contain 36 of Shakespeare’s plays, including two
previously omitted works, Pericles and The Two Noble Kinsmen.
I spoke to Tom Walker, the publishing director of The Folio
Society about the history of The Folio Society, the art of bookmaking, and of
course, the inherent importance of Shakespeare to our literary history.
What is the Folio Society?
Tom describes The Folio Society as “a publisher of a huge
range of books from Shakespeare to children’s classics to science-fiction and
fantasy and non-fiction…” He trails off, taking breath only for a millisecond
before explaining that “the thing that holds it together is that we aim to
publish the best available versions of all those books, whether it’s
Shakespeare or Stephen King, or Herodotus.”
"We aim to publish the best available versions of all those books, whether it’s Shakespeare or Stephen King, or Herodotus"
It’s very brain stretching in those meetings” he admits, laughing.
In terms of the history of Folio up to now, and the place
the company occupies in the world of literature, Tom explains that they are “in
that affordable luxury fine edition space”, having just celebrated their 75th
anniversary last year.
“There is an amazing heritage here. We’ve worked with 2,500 illustrators
over the years, from Quentin Blake to Paula Rego.”
In the last few years, Folio has also followed a similar
trajectory to the British library, transitioning from a members only book club with
a UK focus, to more of an open community, appealing to a largely US based
customer demographic.
The Folio Society currently has over 300,000 followers on
socials, who Tom tells me earnestly, “influence their design and publishing
choices as much as the people in the business do”. This enables them to publish
the classics in a more contemporary way, updating and modernising works like Beowulf
for example, which Tom describes excitedly as “just so cool”, telling me I must
see it to see how they’ve transformed it.
Despite having, like any other English Literature student
with even half an undergraduate degree, battled through the 9th
century classic years ago and fared only slightly better than Grendel’s mother,
Tom’s passion for Beowulf’s rich literary value is infectious, and I
find myself genuinely intrigued by this renewed approach towards an old English
text I had otherwise vowed never to go near again.
“We try to bring that contemporary artistic edge to
something that is classic to make you want to read it again. It brings these
classic books into the modern age and says this is important to now, not just
the 800s.
That’s the context for what we’re trying to do for Shakespeare
as well. To bring Shakespeare to the contemporary bookshelf and make the most
up-to-date edition of Shakespeare for now.
Why Shakespeare and why now?
As well as their conscious evolution to appeal to a larger audience,
Tom also explains that inherent to the ethos of Folio, is “this pull, partly
because of our heritage and partly because of people who are interested in
beautiful books, beautiful books, gorgeous, artisanal bindings and beautiful
illustration.
There are bookish people and Shakespeare is at the heart of
that. Shakespeare is at the heart of almost anyone who loves books. The heart
of their reading goes back to their experience with Shakespeare. That crack of
understanding where you’re reading Shakespeare and you think it’s boring and
suddenly you realise, ‘Oh, he understands everything about human nature’”.
Tom explains that “Folio publishes about 50 books a year,
which are standard edition, illustrated gorgeous binding etc. And then six
times a year, we release limited editions”, like this collection of Shakespeare’s
complete plays, hence the hefty £1,000 price tag.
"All great books are inexhaustible"
“People like Folio because it’s a list curated for a curious
reader. There is a sheer joy in a tangible, well-designed book”, he asserts. “To
quote John Banville, ‘All great books are inexhaustible’”.
As the publishing director of The Folio Society, what is your main job role?
“It’s a really fun role and it’s a massive privilege because
you’re faced with all this history and all this heritage and you have to find a
way not to be swamped by that. To use it and modernise it and make it relevant.
The main job is to make sure Folio stays relevant and
remains important for people who love the physical incarnations of their
favourite books.”
"The main job is to make sure Folio stays relevant for people who love the physical incarnations of their favourite books"
“Rights, editorial, translations, project managing, commissioning
introductions”. Tom lists just a few of the aspects of his job role in much the
same way as he’d offered the names of just a few of the many authors who’s classic
works have been reimagined by Folio in the past 75 years.
For this limited-edition collection of Shakespeare’s plays
in particular, Dame Judie Dench and Gregory Doran have lent their words to the
edition’s introductions, contextualising the classic works through their roles
at the Globe Theatre as actor and Artistic Director respectively.
“In general, we’re going through a golden age of book
design. Folio is trying to spearhead that. I get so excited going into a
bookshop now from a design and aesthetic perspective, in a way I just don’t
think was there 10 or 20 years ago.
Now you go in and I feel constantly wowed by the innovation
that goes on in children’s books and cookery books and the amazing stuff that’s
happening with covers. Publishers in general are pushing the boundaries and I
think Folio can just take that to another level.”
Can you explain a bit about the process of making this specific edition?
“Well,” he sighs. “It’s publishing Shakespeare. If you’re
going to get anything right, it has to be this’.
He remembers aloud the limited edition of Dante’s The Divine
Comedy that Folio published during lockdown a few years ago, using words like
“complicated” and “nightmare” to describe the book sleeve manufactured in Italy
during a global pandemic, complete with authentic Italian leather binding and book-sleeve
drawers.
By contrast, he tells me that they wanted to “strip
Shakespeare back to stately simplicity”.
“The materials and people working on it are the best of the
best but the actual design is very traditional bookmaking. Because of the elegant
simplicity we’ve been talking about all the way through, that’s allowed us to
focus us on the materials, like the jacquard cloth and the Edwardian blackwork
embroidery. The book themselves are bound by Smith Settle weavers in Suffolk.
What is your favourite Shakespeare play?
He ponders for only a moment, before admitting, “Twelfth Night”,
as if Shakespeare, despite being perhaps the most read playwright in the world,
is still somewhat of a guilty pleasure for whom Tom would describe as the
really “bookish people”.
“It is at once, complex
and dark and funny. It’s got cruelty and love and sadness and amazing characters
and it’s all about gender fluidity and it’s super current”, he explains,
delivering this praise almost as a torrent, as if we’ll run out of time and there’ll
still be more to say about Twelfth Night and indeed, Shakespeare in
general.
As the one minute warning pops up on the Zoom window,
signalling that our meeting is coming to a close, I realise that this is what
Tom has been trying to say all along, that of course we’ll run out of time.
There will, after all, always be more to say about Shakespeare.
Banner: Shakespeare's engraving from the first folio (1623). Credit: claudiodivizia
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