The Literary Vault: America’s Most Guarded Shakespeare Collection
What if I told you that 82 copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio—more than a third of all surviving copies in the world—were hidden in a vault beneath Washington, D.C.’s most prestigious library? The Folger Shakespeare Library doesn’t just house books; it harbors treasures that changed the course of literature forever. For years, these 82 copies were kept locked away in secure storage vaults, accessible only to the most elite scholars, but now they’re finally on display together for the first time in four centuries. Each copy tells its own story of survival, mystery, and obsession. Think about it—these books contain plays that might have been lost forever, like Macbeth and The Tempest, preserved by pure chance. About half of Shakespeare’s plays had never previously appeared in print before the First Folio, meaning without this collection, 18 plays might have been lost forever. Behind…..