First Editions Are Not Gold

摘要

There's some tut-tutting going on in London over the Dr. Williams' Library's decision to sell its prize possession, an almost perfect First Folio of William Shakespeare's work It is expected to fetch up to £3.5 million ($6.5 million) when Sotheby's auctions it on July 13. The library specializes in theology and the history of nonconformity, so the Folio has no obvious role on its shelves. Selling it will secure the library's future and save a good deal in insurance fees. But not everyone agrees that institutions have a right to sell off valuable items left to them in perpetuity by benefactors, and there is talk that this may be the thin end of the wedge. Dr. Williams' also owns the diary of Henry Crabb Robinson, one of my favorites, which gives splendid glimpses of Charles Lamb, William Wordsworth, William Hazlitt and others—as well as a fascinating manuscript of George Herbert's poems. These could also be sold. "So," ask the purists, "where will it end?"