Half of the plays that we know Shakespeare wrote we have only because of his partners in the King’s Men theatrical company. The First Folio is commonly known as “The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare,” but what might we think of Shakespeare if we had only the plays that were published individually during his lifetime? What do the additional plays that appear in the First Folio contribute to his achievements? What does the First Folio, as a single volume, contribute to his legacy? In this illustrated lecture, Dr. Stephen Buhler will consider the difference the First Folio has made over the centuries in our ideas, imaginings and understandings of William Shakespeare, the writer and the person.

Stephen M. Buhler is the Aaron Douglas Professor of English at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where he teaches courses on Shakespeare and other writers of the English Renaissance. He is the author of Shakespeare in the Cinema: Ocular Proof, along with numerous articles and book chapters on the literary culture of Early Modern England and its connections with philosophy and the performing arts. Previously director of the Medieval and Renaissance Studies program at UNL and research fellow at the Huntington and Folger Shakespeare Libraries, he is also co-founder and education director of the Flatwater Shakespeare Company, based in Lincoln, with which he has served as dramaturg, composer, sound designer and (occasionally) actor.