Folger Shakespeare Library editions of Shakespeare's works
Designed to make Shakespeare's plays and poems available to all readers, the Folger Shakespeare Library editions of Shakespeare's works provide accurate texts in modern spelling and punctuation, as well as scene-by-scene action summaries, full explanatory notes, many pictures clarifying Shakespeare's language, and notes recording all significant departures from the early printed versions. Each play or collection of poems is prefaced by a brief introduction, by a guide to reading Shakespeare's language, and by accounts of his life and theater.
Completely re-edited, these editions put readers in touch with current ways of thinking about Shakespeare. Each text is based directly on what the editors consider the best early printed version of a particular play, poem, or collection of poems, and each volume contains full explanatory notes on the page facing the text that they explain.
The illustrations of objects, clothing, and mythological figures are drawn from the Library's vast holdings of rare books. Each text is followed by an annotated list of further readings and by a "Modern Perspective" written by an expert on that particular work.
Published by Simon & Schuster's Washington Square Press, the Folger Shakespeare Library editions of Shakespeare's works are available for purchase in the Folger Shop and in bookstores nationwide. The editions are also available in print and as ebooks from Simon & Schuster.
The editors
Dr. Barbara A. Mowat
Barbara A. Mowat is the Director of Research Emerita at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Consulting Editor of Shakespeare Quarterly, and Editor (with Paul Werstine) of the Folger Shakespeare Library editions of Shakespeare's works. Her major fields of research interest are Shakespeare’s dramatic romances, early modern printed dramatic texts, and Shakespeare’s reading practices. She holds an M.A. degree in English literature from the University of Virginia, a Ph.D. in English literature from Auburn University, and Doctorates of Humane Letters from Amherst College, St. Johns University, and Washington College. Before coming to the Folger, she was Hollifield Professor of English Literature at Auburn University and then Dean of the College at Washington College. She has served as President of the Shakespeare Association of America, President of the Southeast Renaissance Conference, Chair of the MLA Committee on the New Variorum Shakespeare, and a member of the Advisory Board of the International Shakespeare Conference (Stratford-upon-Avon).
Dr. Paul Werstine
Paul Werstine is Professor of English at King’s University College at the University of Western Ontario, a member of the Graduate Faculty at the University, Editor (with Barbara A. Mowat) of the Folger Shakespeare Library editions of Shakespeare's works, and General Editor (with Richard Knowles of the University of Wisconsin--Madision) of the New Variorum Shakespeare, published by the Modern Language Association, for which he is preparing the volume on Romeo and Juliet. He has written extensively about the transmission of early modern English dramatic texts in manuscript and into print, and about the history of editing Shakespeare, including Early Modern Playhouse Manuscripts and the Editing of Shakespeare (Cambridge, 2012). Dr. Werstine holds an M.A. degree in English literature from the University of Western Ontario and a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of South Carolina.