FUN WITH MAPS ISSUE 2024-204

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (November 8, 2024) – In this edition of Fun with Maps we recognize a first for Shakespeare over 400 years ago on this date.  

TO BE OR NOT TO BE

William Shakespeare’s first folio was published on November 8, 1623, about eight years after his death.

The folio contains 36 plays, although a handful might not be his creation fully.  While this is the most comprehensive, it was not the first publication of his plays as 18 had been published a few years earlier.

Only 750 copies of the folio were printed and 275 survive to this date.

Shakespeare is from Stratford-upon-Avon, England.  He is a son of a local politician and businessman and his mother was a daughter of a well to do family.

He married at 18 an older woman, by eight years, and their first child was born six months after the marriage.  He was a naughty boy.

Collins captured England and Wales in this map from 1860.

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps.

Visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Steve Kovacs: Fun with Maps here on Loveland Beacon.