To continue reading:
or
Log-In
Shakespeare Inc.
Subscriber content preview.
or
Log-In
When two actors, Henry Condell and John Heminges, started putting together a book of all their friend's plays, they could not have guessed where it would lead. But they did know publishing was an expensive and risky business if their labor of love wasn't going to end in financial disaster, it had to sell. By the time he died in 1616, William Shakespeare was already a popular playwright and well-known actor in England. So when
Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies
hit the shelves seven years later, the title page carried the author's name in big letters. Underneath it...