The Folgers accumulated 1,400 different copies of the collected works of Shakespeare, including 200 from the seventeenth century. Eighty-two of these were copies of the famous First Folio (1623), some of them previously owned by kings, queens and illustrious individuals such as Samuel Johnson and William Pitt. Ironically, the First Folio is not a very rare book: over 200 copies are still in existence today. Yet the fact that Folger was able to acquire more than a third of those was exceptional.

Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile Hist…, loc. 669