Cornell Video

Cornell is one of a few places in the world to have the original 17th-century editions of William Shakespeare's collected works, known as the four folios. Donated to Cornell in 1953 by William G. Mennen, class of 1908, these volumes are among the most important books in world literature. The First Folio of 1623, published seven years after the author’s death, established Shakespeare’s canon by collecting his plays in a single volume for the first time. Eighteen of the thirty-six plays published in the First Folio had never been printed before their appearance here. Lance Heidig, outreach and learning service librarian at the Cornell University Library, explains what the folios represent and how they made their way to Cornell.