Male : Actor, Poet & Dramatist. Little known up to 18. Married a farmer's daughter, Anne Hathaway in 1582. Went to London, Globe Theatre as actor and playwright. 38 Plays in total. 36 Printed in the First Folio of 1623. He is the most published author in history.

Nationality : English Place of Birth : Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire

Date of Birth : 1564 Date of Death : 1616 Age : 52

Pseudonyms : The Swan of Avon

Education : King's New School (GS) in Stratford

Illustrated & Individual Editions of the Plays
ALL'S WELL THAT END'S WELL (Produced c1602)
In First Folio 1623
[Baroness Burdett-Coutts paid 682 guineas for a copy of the First Folio at auction in 1864.
By 1899 the price had risen to £1,700 for another copy]

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA (Produced c1606)
In First Folio 1623
[Filmed in 1972]

AS YOU LIKE IT (Produced c1600)
In First Folio 1623
(1909 Hodder & Stoughton) - Ltd Ed 500 numbered signed Hugh Thomson
Signed Edition Offered in 1995 for £395
(nd. 1909 Heinemann) Hugh Thomson
(1930 Wm Jackson) - 125 signed John Austen
(1953 Folio Society) Salvador Dali
[Filmed in 1936 & 1992]

THE COMEDIES (1623)
(1958 Heritage Press, London) Edward Ardizzone

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS (Produced c1593)
In First Folio 1623
(The Vale Press, London - 310 Hacon & Ricketts
(1939 Ltd Eds Club) - 1950 John Austen

CORIOLANUS (Produced c1606)
In First Folio 1623
(1914 Doves Press) - 215

CYMBELINE (Produced c1609)
In First Folio 1623

HAMLET (Produced c1601)
(1910 Hodder & Stoughton) W G Simmonds
(1922 Selwyn Blount) (1922 Dutton, NY) John Austen
(1922 Selwyn Blount) - Ltd Ed 60 John Austen
(1933 Ltd Eds Club, High Wycombe) - Signed Ltd Ed 1500 in slipcase Eric Gill
Offered for £280 in 1998
(1940 Birmingham School of Printing) - Robert Bird
(nd. Raphael Tuck) Harold Copping
[Filmed in 1948, 1964, 1969, 1991. 1996 & 2000]

HENRY IV (Part 1 produced 1596-7 & Part 2 c1597-8)
Part 2 : (1939 Ltd Eds Club, NY) - 1950 Edward Bawden

HENRY V (Produced 1599)
The Life of Henry V (1880 New Shakespeare Society) - 1623 Edition
(1940 Ltd Eds Club, NY) - 1950 Vera Willoughby
The Life of Henry V (1951 Ltd Eds Club, NY) - 1500 signed by Fritz Kredel
[Filmed in 1944 & 1989]

HENRY VI (Part 1 produced c1591; Part 2 c1592 & Part 3 c1592)
In First Folio 1623
Part 2 : (The Vale Press, London) - 310 Hacon & Ricketts
Part 2 : (1939 Ltd Eds Club, NY) Lithographs by Carlotta Petrina
Part I (1940 Ltd Eds Club, US) - 1950 numbered Graham Sutherland

HENRY VIII (Produced 1613) - written with Fletcher
In First Folio 1623
1762 Hitch, Hawes & Tonson, London
(1903 Vale Press)
(1939 Ltd Eds Club, NY) - Ltd Ed 1950 numbered Eric Gill

THE HISTORIES (1623)
(1958 Heritage Press) - John Farleigh

JULIUS CAESAR (Produced 1599)
In First Folio 1623
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar (1913 Doves Press, Hammersmith) - 200
(1939 Ltd Eds Club, NY) - 1950. - Frans Masereel
(1954 Grabhorn Press, SF) - 180 Mary Grabhorn
[Filmed in 1953 & 1969]

KING JOHN (produced 1589)
In First Folio 1623

KING LEAR (Produced 1605)
(1927 Shakespeare Head Press) - 450 Paul Nash
(1959 Grabhorn Press, SF) - 180 Mary Grabhorn
[Filmed in 1970 & 1987]

LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST (Produced c1594)
(1923 CUP) - Edited by A Quiller-Couch & J D Wilson
(1924 Benn) - 550. Norman Wilkinson
[Filmed in 2000]

MACBETH (Produced 1606)
In First Folio 1623
(1923 Benn) - 100 signed by Granville-Barker, Ricketts & Rutherston
Offered in 1998 for £750
(1946 Doubleday) - Salvador Dali
1970 : Circle Press, Guildford. 150. Original screen images by Ronald King 150 signed by King
[Filmed in 1948, 1972 & 1997. Kurosawa also filmed it memorably as "Thrones of Blood" in 1957]

MEASURE FOR MEASURE (Produced c1604)
In First Folio 1623

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (Produced c1596)
The Most Excellent Historie of the Merchant of Venice (1860 Sampson Low) - Birket Foster et al
(1860 D Appleton NY) - Birket Foster et al
[Filmed in 2004 with Al Pacino]

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR (Produced c1599-1600)
(1894 George Allen) - Ltd Ed 650 numbered Walter Crane
(1910 Heinemann) Hugh Thomson

A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS' DREAM (Produced 1595)
(1895 Dent) Robert Anning Bell
(1901 Fremantle) Mrs Herbert Railton
(1908 Heinemann) (1908 Doubleday Page, NY) (1920 Heinemann) Arthur Rackham
(1977 Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
(1914 Constable) - Ltd Ed 250 signed W Heath Robinson
Offered in 1998 for £720
(1919 Simpkin Marshall) Lorna Burgoyne
(1907 Dandelion Classics for Children NY) - Lucy Fitch Perkins
(1924 Shakespeare Head Press) - Ltd Ed 450, 100 numbered signed Paul Nash
(1982 Ash & Grant £6.95) Kevin Maddison
[Filmed in 1935, 1996 & 1999]

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (Produced c1598)
[Filmed in 1993]

OTHELLO (Produced c1604)
(1939 Ltd Eds Club, NY) - Ltd Ed 1950 numbered Robert Gibbings
[Filmed in 1951, 1965 & 1995]

PERICLES : Prince of Tyre (Produced c1608)
(1900 The Vale Press. London - 310 Hacon & Ricketts

POEMS
Sonnets : First Edition (1609 London)
Poems : First Collected Edition (1640 London) - W Marshall
Poems (1775 reprinted for Thomas Evans, London)
Poems (1807 Oliver & Munroe, Boston)
The Poems (1825 Wm Pickering, London)
The Poems (1853 Wm Pickering, Aldine Poets)
Poems : Kelmscott Press Edition (1893 Kelmscott Press) - Ltd Ed 510
Sonnets : Ricketts Edition (reprint of 1609 Edition) (1899 Vale Press) - Charles Ricketts.
Ltd Ed 210
Sonnets : Shakespeare Head Press edition (1905) - Ltd Ed 510
All the Love Poems of Shakespeare (1947 Sylvan Press, NY) - 1450. Eric Gill
Poems : Golden Cockerel Press Edition (Ed by G Jones) (1960) - John Buckland-Wright.
Ltd Ed 470 Numbered copies
The Poems of William Shakespeare (1967 Ltd Eds Club, NY) - 1500 signed by Agnes Miller Parker

RICHARD II (Produced c1595-6)
(1940 Ltd Eds Club, NY) - 1950 Agnes Miller Parker

RICHARD III (produced c1592)
[Filmed in 1955 & 1995]

ROMEO AND JULIET (produced c1594-5)
(c1890 Raphael Tuck)
(1912 Hodder & Stoughton) W Hatherell
(1936 Scribner NY / Batsford) Designs by Oliver Messel
[Filmed in 1936, 1954, 1968 & 1996]

SONGS & BALLADS
(1849 Lockwood, NY) - Illuminated by T W Gwilt Mapleson
Offered in 1998 for £575

SONGS & SONNETS (1609) - Verse
(1862 Sampson Low) - Sir John Gilbert
(1863 Sampson Low) - Sir John Gilbert
(1914 Duckworth) - Charles Robinson
Songs from Shakespeare's Plays (1974 Officina Bodoni, Verona) - 310

THE SONNETS
Sonnets : First edition (1609 London)
(1899 Vale Press, London) - 210. Charles Ricketts
(1909 NY) - Brangwyn frontis
Eric Gill (1933 Cassell)
C Longworth De Chambrun : An Explanatory Introduction to Thorpe's Edition of
Shakespeare Sonnets, 1609 (1950 Hand & Flower Press) - 1240
(1974 Peter Lord at The Black Swan Press) - 190
(1982 Acorn Press, London) - 350 Hellmuth Weissenborn

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW (Produced 1594)
In First Folio 1623
[Filmed in 1929 & 1967]

THE TEMPEST (Produced 1611)
In First Folio 1623
(1893 Dent) Walter Crane
(1901 London) Robert Anning Bell
(1908 Hodder & Stoughton) - 500 signed Edmund Dulac
Unsigned Edition Offered in 1995 for £325
(1908 Chapman & Hall) Paul Woodroffe
(1926 Heinemann, London & NY) Arthur Rackham
Offered at £580 in 1998
(1986 Centennial Limited Edition, Heinemann) Edmund Dulac
[A version filmed in 1991 as "Prospero's Books"]

TIMON OF ATHENS (Produced c1607)
In First Folio 1623
1900 : Vale Press, London - 310. Decorations by Ricketts
(1913 Benmar & Co) - portfolio Wyndham Lewis

TITUS ANDRONICUS (Prduced 1594)
(1973 Gehenna Press, Northampton, Mass) - 400 signed Leonard Baskin
[Filmed in 1999 as "Titus"]

TRAGEDIES (1623)

TROILUS AND CRESSIDA (Produced c1602)

TWELFTH NIGHT or What You Will (Produced c1601-2)
In First Folio 1623
(1908 Hodder & Stoughton) - 350 signed W Heath Robinson
Offered for £325 in 1998
(1932 Golden Cockerel Press) - Ltd Ed 275 numbered Eric Ravilious
[Filmed in 1996]

TWO GENTLEMN OF VERONA (Produced c1595)
In First Folio 1623
(1894 Dent) Walter Crane

THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN (Produced 1613) - with Fletcher

VENUS and ADONIS (1593) - Verse
(1912 Doves Press, Hammersmith) - 200
(1930 Lincoln MacVeagh, The Dial Press, NY) Ben Kutcher
(1930 Harrison of Paris) - 440
(1931 The Printing House, Rochester) - 1250 signed Rockwell Kent
(1931 Raven Press, Harrow Weald) - 275 Horace Walter Bray

A WINTER'S TALE (Produced c1610)
In First Folio 1623
1756 for Charles Marsh, London)

THE WORKS
(1911 Dent) - 3 vols Edmund J Sullivan
(1929 Nonesuch Press, NY) - 7 vols
Offered in 1995 for £1065
(1939-41 Ltd Eds Club, NY) - 39 vols. 1950 Rackham, Gill, Gibbings, et al

17thC
First Folio (Comedies, Histories & Tragedies) (1623 London)
Second Folio (1632 London) - Martin Droeshut
Third Folio (1664 London)
Fourth Folio (Ed by B Johnson) (1685 London) - illus after M Droeshut

1700-1770
Rowe's Octavo Edition of the First Four Folios (1709 Jacob Tonson) - 7 vols
Pope Edition (ed by Alexander Pope & Dr Sewell) (1723-5 Tonson 6 gns) - 6 vols
[At the sale of the effects of Jacob Tonson in 1767 - 140 copies of this Edition of Shakespeare
were sold at 16/- per set. By then 750 sets had been printed.]
The Works (1733 Bettesworth & Hitch, London) - 7 vols
The Works (1743-4 at the Theatre, Oxford. 1st Hanmer Edition 3gns) - 6 vols
Dr Warburton's Edition of Shakespeare (1747 Tonson)
[For which Warburton was paid £500 by Tonson]
The Works (1752 Knapton, London. 3rd Ed) - 8 vols
The Works (1753 Sands, Murray & Cochran, Edinburgh) - 8 vols. Edited by Hugh Blair
Twenty of the Plays .. published from the Originals (1766 Tonson) - 4 vols
The Works (1767 Martin & Wotherspoon, Edinburgh) - 10 vols

1771-1800
The Plays (from the text of Dr Johnson) (1771 Thomas Ewing, Dublin) - 7 vols
The Works ... (1773 for C Bathurst, London) - 8 vols
The Plays (1773 for C Bathurst, London) - 10 vols
The Beauties of Shakespeare (1783 G Kearsley, London)
The Dramatick Writings (1788 John Bell, London) - 20 vols
Offered in 1999 for £350
The Dramatic Works (notes by Joseph Rann) (1786-91 Clarendon Press, Oxford) - 6 vols
Dramatic Works (new edition) (index by S Ayscough) (1790 Stockdale, London) - 3 vols
The Plays .... (1798 H Baldwin, London) - 9 vols
The Dramatic Writings (1798 Morison, Perth & London) - 9 vols

1800-1825
The Plays (1800 Bensley, London) - 12 vols
The Dramatic Works (1802 Bulmer, Shakespeare Printing Office, London) - 9 vols.
Edited by George Bulmer
The Plays (1803-5 T Bensley for Wynne & Scholey) - 10 vols
The Plays (1806 for George Kearsley, London) - 14 vols. Edited by Manley Wood
The Dramatic Works (1806 Wm Miller, London) - 2 vols
The Plays (1807 T Davison for Peter Wynne, London) - 8 vols. Woodcuts by Thurston & Nesbit
The Poems (1807 Oliver & Munroe, Belcher & Armstrong, Boston)
Plays : Accurately printed from the Text of the corrected copy left by the late George Steevens
(1811 London) - 9 vols
Offered in 1998 for £575
The Dramatic Works (1812-15 Thomas Tegg, London) - 12 vols
The Family Shakespeare (by Thomas Bowdler) (1818 Longman) - 10 vols
The Beauties of Shakespeare, regularly selected from each Play (1818 J Walker, London)
Miniature Edition (1825 Wm Pickering)
The Plays & Poems : Pickering Wreath Edition (1825 Wm Pickering) - 11 vols
Offered in 1999 for £650

1826-1850
The Plays (new edition) (1826 Rivington, London) - 8 vols
The Plays & Poems of Shakespeare (ed A J Valpy) (1832 A J Valpy, London) - 15 vols
The Pictorial Edition of the Works of Shakespeare (ed Charles Knight) (1839-42 C Knight) - 8 vols
The Dramatic Works (1841 Hilliard, Gray, Boston) - 7 vols
The Dramatic Works (1842 Baudry, Paris)
The Works : Edited by J Payne Collier (1842-4 Whittaker, London) - 8 vols
Offered in 1999 for £800
The Works (1843-7 Charles Knight : Cabinet edition) - 12 vols
The Works (1843 Robert Tyas, London) - 3 vols. Engravings from designs by Kenny Meadows
The Standard Edition of the Pictorial Shakespeare (ed C Knight) (1846 C Knight) - 7 vols
The Complete Works (1846 J J Chidley, London)
The Family Shakespeare in One Volume by Thomas Bowdler (1847 Longman, Brown. 9th Ed)
Plays, with His Life (1847 Harper, NY) - 3 vols

1851-1875
The Plays & Poems (1853 Bohn, London) - 15 vols
The Plays (with a History of the Stage) (1856 Longman) - 8 vols
The Works (Edited by Howard Staunton) (1858 London) - 3 vols. John Gilbert
Works (Edited by W G Clark & John Glover) (1863-6 London) - 9 vols
Offered in 1998 for £400
The Works : New Variorum Edition (1871 onwards) - 27 vols. Edited by H H Furness
The Works : The Imperial Edition (1873-6 Virtue & Co) - 2 vols. Ed Charles Knight
The Works (edited by Charles & Mary Cowden Clarke) (1874 Bickers) - 2 vols
The Complete Works (c1874 Johnson, Fry, NY) - 3 vols
The Works (1875 Chapman & Hall) - 9 vols. Text Revised by Rev Alexander Dyce
The Complete Works, revised from Original Editons
(nd.c1875 London Printing & Publishing Co) - 3 vols.
The Works (nd. Virtue & Co) - 4 vols. Ed Charles Knight

1876-1900
Shakespeare Scenes and Caharcters : A Series of Illustrations designed by Adamo, Hofmann,
Makart, Pecht, Schwoerer and Speiss (1877 Macmillan £2.12/6)
+ India Large Paper edition (£4.14/6)
The Works (rev text Rev A Dyce) (1880-1 Bickers, London) - 10 vols. 4th Ed
The Works in Fifteen Volumes (ed Howard Stainton) (1881-2 Routledge) - Sir John Gilbert
The Dramtic Works (1883 William Paterson, Edinburgh) - 8 vols
Dramatic Works : Text of the First Edition (1885 Chatto & Windus) - 8 vols. 250
Offered in 1998 for £480
The Works : Edited by Bryan W Procter (1886-8 Blackie) - 6 vols
The Works (1886 Swan Sonnenschein, London 5th Ed) - 10 vols. Text revised by Alexander Dyce
Henry Irving Edition (1887-90 Blackie) - Gordon Browne. 8 vols
The National Shakespeare (Facsimile of the Text of 1st Folio of 1623)
(1888-9 William Mackenzie) - 3 vols
The Works : Handy Volume Shakespeare (c1890 Bradbury, Agnew) - 13 vols
The Works : The Cambridge Shakespeare (1891 Macmillan) - 9 vols.
Edited by William Aldis Wright
Offered in 1998 for £850
Cambridge Edition (ed by W G Clark & W A Wright) (1891-93 Macmillan) - 40 vols
Works : Whitehall Edition (1893-8 Constable) - 12 vols
Temple Edition (ed by Israel Gollancz) (1894-6 Dent) - 40 vols
The Illustrated Pocket Shakespeare (ed J Talfourd Blair) (1899 D Bruce & Son. Glasgow) - 8 vols
The Dramatic Works (ed S W Singer) (1899 Geo Bell, London) - 10 vols

1900-1925
The Works : The Edinburgh Edition (1901 Edinburgh) - 10 vols. 1000
The Works (1902 Constable) - 20 vols. Patten Wilson, Byam Shaw, H J Ford, et al
The Works : edited by J Talfourd Blair (1904 Bryce, Glasgow) - 40 vols
Offered in 1998 for £2500
Shakespeare Head Press Edition (1904-7) - 10 vols
The Plays (c1905 Virtue) - 6 vols
Complete Works (nd.c1910 OUP, World's Classics) - 9 vols. Intro by Algernon Swinburne
The Works : New Cambridge Edition (1921-66) - Edited by J Dover Wilson & A H Quiller-Couch
The Comedies, Tragedies, Histories & Poems (1922 OUP) - 3 vols

1926 Onwards
Nonesuch Edition (1929-33 Nonesuch Press) - 7 vols. Ltd Ed 1600. Edited by Herbert Farjeon
The New Temple Shakespeare (1934-6 Dent) - Eric Gill . 40 vols
The Works (1934 Shakespeare Head Press & Basil Blackwell, Oxford)
The Complete Works (1936 Doubleday Doran) - 2 vols. 750 signed by Rockwell Kent
The Comedies, Histories & Tragedies, incl the Poems (1939-40 Ltd Eds Club, NY)
- 39 vols. 1950 sets
The Works : The New Shakespeare (1949 CUP) - 38 vols
The New Arden Shakespeare (1951 onwards) - edited by Una Ellis-Fermor et al
Complete Works : Coronation Edition (1953 Nonesuch Press) - 4 vols. Reynolds Stone
The Oxford Shakespeare : Illustrated Edition (1957 OUP)
The First Folio of Shakespeare : The Norton Facsimile (1968 W W Norton, NY)

The Plays (nd. Cassell) - 3 vols. Edited by Charles & Mary Cowden Clarke. H C Selous

READING
1859-1900
Illustrations of Stratford-upon-Avon and the Life of Shakespeare,
from Original Drawings (1851 Stratford-upon-Avon)
John Bucknill : The Psychology of Shakespeare (1859 London)
Charles Knight : A Biography of William Shakespeare (c1860 Virtue, London)
Thomas Keightley : The Shakespeare Expositor : An Aid to the Perfect Understanding
of Shakespeare's Plays (1867 London)
E M O'Connor : An Index to the Works of Shakespeare (1887 London)
Georg Brandes : William Shakespeare (1898)

1901-1950
John Phin : The Shakespeare Cyclopaedia and New Glossary (1902 Kegan Paul)
Alexander Schmidt : Shakespeare-Lexicon : A Complete Dictionary (1902 Berlin) - 2 vols
J M Robertson : Did Shakespeare Write Ttius Andronicus ? (1905 Watts, London)
William Jaggard : Shakespeare Bibliography ... (1911 Stratford on Avon) (1913 Reprint)
Henrietta C Bartlett & Alfred W Pollard : A Census of Shakespeare's Plays in Quarto 1594-1709
(1916 Yale UP)
Walter Ebisch & Levin L Schueking : A Shakespeare Bibliography (1931 OUP)
W Ebisch & L L Schueking : A Shakespeare Bibliography Supplement (1937 OUP)
Shakespeare's England : An Account of the Life & Manners of His Age (1950 Oxford) - 2 vols

1951-1990
Gordon Ross Smith : A Classified Shakespeare Bibliography 1936-1958 (1963)
E K Chambers : William Shakespeare - A Study of Facts and Problems (1963 OUP) - 2 vols
T Howard-Hill : Shakespearian Bibliography and Txetual Criticism (1971 OUP)
W R N Fredrick : A Shakespeare Bibliography - Catalogue of the Birmingham Shakespeare Library
(1971 London) - 7 vols
S Schoenbaum : William Shakespeare - A Documentary Life (1975 OUP & Scolar Press, NY)

After 1991
Garry O'Connor : Shakespeare - A Life (1991 Hodder & Stoughton)
Jonathan Bate : The Genius of Shakespeare (1997 Picador £20)
Peter Holland : English Shakespeare - Shakespeare on the English Stage in the 1990s
(1997 CUP £37.50 & £13.95)
Helen Vendler : The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets (1998 Belknap £23.50)
Park Honan : Shakespeare - A Life (1998 OUP)
David & Ben Crystal : Shakespeare's Words - A Glossary & Language Companion
(2002 Penguin £20)
Stanley Wells : Shakespeare for All Time (2002 Macmillan £30)
Stephen Greenblatt : Will in the World - How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare (2004 Cape £20)