Episode Guide: What Makes a Shakespeare* Archive Special?
Holding History Podcast
Season 1: Episode 7
“…[forgeries are] incredibly valuable because they reveal our culture's fantasies.”
-Greg Mackie
This episode features a conversation with Dr. Gregory Mackie from the University of British Columbia. Greg is an Associate Professor in the Department of English, specializing in Victorian and Modernist literature, drama, and book history. He is also the Norman Colbeck Curator at UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections division.
We arranged to speak with Greg in light of UBC’s recent acquisition of a First Folio, a purchase that Greg engineered. And he didn’t disappoint, we learned all about the process of how one gets such a book, where the money comes from, and what happens when it actually arrives. But with Greg, we
also learned that a Shakespeare archive is really a fantasy, a gateway into a much broader discussion.
*The result is a sprawling look at questions of value, the importance of forgeries, the curation of Queer archives, and much more. Listen now and check the links below to follow up on some details from the interview.
Information about UBC’s First Folio. And an interview about the acquisition. A Smithsonian article about the book’s previous owner, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, author of The Worst Journey in the World. Try your luck at Christie’s Auction House. A description of Greg’s exhibition, A Queer Century. More from the exhibit here, including Greg’s description of A Guide for the Naive Homosexual. And his book on Wilde forgeries. More on forgery, Josh mentions William Ireland. And, most importantly, Scott’s Emporer penguin egg!
A transcript of this episode can be accessed here.
This episode’s Bookish Word—biblioklept—was created by Ainsley Skomal.
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