
J.R.
Thorp on Learwife
A
banished queen receives word that her husband and three
daughters are dead. Learwife, a new novel by
J.R. Thorp, picks up where Shakespeare’s King Lear
leaves off. On the Shakespeare Unlimited
podcast, Thorp discusses her inspirations, character
backstories, and the roles of grief and nothingness in
the book.
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The
New West Side Story
Steven
Spielberg’s re-imagined take on West Side Story
has been attracting lots of Oscars buzz. Sixty years
after the original musical and film, Carla Della Gatta
writes about how the 2021 movie adds new layers to the
Shakespearean story of the tragic love affair between
two teenagers divided by rival New York gangs, the
Sharks and the Jets.
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Early
Modern Letterlocking and Mary, Queen of Scots
Did you
make a New Year's resolution to write more letters in 2022? To
add an extra challenge, try your hand at letterlocking — an
early modern practice of slitting and folding paper to secure a
letter from prying eyes.
Scholars
have recently untangled the complicated spiral lock that Mary,
Queen of Scots used to seal what is thought to be her final
letter, right before her execution in 1587. Read the story from
NPR, and visit the Folger's Collation blog to learn more
about early modern letterlocking and the silk-flossing
technique used by the wife of James I.
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Top
Blog Posts
Read
the year's most popular posts on our Shakespeare
& Beyond blog, from Ian McKellen as Hamlet to
the Islamic history of coffee.
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Top
Podcasts
Our
most popular Shakespeare Unlimited episodes
explore the British royal family, a
Shakespeare-inspired novel, and more.
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Top
Folger Finds
Feast
your eyes on these beautiful books from the Folger
collection, some of our most popular #FolgerFinds posts
on Instagram in 2021.
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#FolgerFinds
For more encounters with
the Folger collection, follow @FolgerLibrary
on Instagram.
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