In 1803 Joseph Johnson (1738-1809) published the fifth edition of The Plays of William Shakespeare, in twenty-one volumes, with the corrections and illustrations of various commentators to which are added notes. Originally written by Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) and George Steevens (1736-1800), this fifth edition was edited by Isaac Reed (1742-1807) and became known as the first variorum edition of Shakespeare.
Reed’s collation of previous variations of Shakespeare proved to be a massive undertaking (twenty-one volumes!) that would be reprinted in 1813 and inspire future variorums like that of James Boswell the Younger in 1821 and the New Variorum Shakespeare Project that began in the 1870s and continues to this day as an official project of the Modern Language Association of America (which, btw, was headquartered here at the UWM libraries for 20 years, and the reason we have such a strong Shakespeare collection). The edition opens with a frontispiece engraving of Shakespeare by British engraver James Neagle (d. 1822) followed by an advertisement by Reed. Reed takes this opportunity to sing Steevens praises, including a eulogy written by William Hayley that reads in part “This tomb may perish, but not so his name who shed new lustre upon Shakespeare’s fame!”
Volume One continues with various prefaces and essays by the usual Shakespearean scholars and critics of the time, Malone, Pope, Warburton and of course Nicholas Rowe’s Life of Shakespeare. Printed by John Plymsell out of London, our edition features marble endpapers in a Stormont pattern.
All of my Teen Wolf items from Epic Cons Chicago, March 23 & 24, 2024. Crystal Reed was very sweet, she told me she loved my top, and JR said I was beautiful. I was so happy to get a smushy hug with Seth and Posey! I added 7 autographs to my Teen Wolf board this time, including Max & Charlie Carver, Ryan Kelley, Shelley Hennig, Dylan Sprayberry, Michael Johnston, and Madison McLaughlin. Ryan was especially sweet, hugging everyone, and Max Carver is a bit of a charmer!
I have a Facebook album full of photos from the Teen Wolf panels at Epic Cons Chicago (also Twilight and Pretty Little Liars) and the Tyler Posey and Phem concert from Friday night. It's a public album, so anyone can take a look. If you share any of my photos, please credit me. You can tag me on Instagram and X at rharsin
my red flag is that every time a show/movie has an actor in it who was in teen wolf i am unable to restrain myself from saying “oh they were in teen wolf” no matter who i’m with. it’s been 10 years and the urge never stops.
It's time for a touch of marbling to keep this Monday going! This marbling was found in our Shakespeare collection. The book is volume 18 of Samuel Johnson and George Steevens's The Plays of William Shakespeare: In Twenty-One Volumes, an annotated edition of Shakespeare's plays. This is a sixth edition revised by Isaac Reed that was published in 1813 and called the first variorum edition. Oddly enough, today, September 18, is the anniversary of Samuel Johnson's birthday in 1709, so happy birthday to Samuel Johnson!
The marbling on the covers is a swirled sort of loose, dotty leaf-esque pattern in muted green, mauve, and black, rather than a tight traditional pattern like peacock/bouquet. It has some zig-zag movement to it in places, and I'd love to see what a larger sheet looked like, but from what I can tell there's not really a uniform pattern to the marbling. Interestingly, the marbling on the covers does not match the marbling on the fore-edges, which is orange and blue, and just one of several things that leads me to believe this is not an original binding.
Another of those things is the wormholes present in the first and last pages of the book that are not continued in the endsheets, which are of a heavy, laid cardstock that seems too clean and too heavy to have been used at the time the text was printed. There is also no damage to the covers themselves, making me think they are newer than the text block. Overall, the color combinations on the book are interesting, with the bright red spine, green and purple and orange and blue marbling, and I must admit aren't my favorite.