“Take choice of all my library,” wrote William Shakespeare in his play, Titus Andronicus. The quote graces a red, African marble mantle in the library of Manhattan’s Players Club, a social club for actors founded in 1888 by Edwin Booth in New York City. Booth surely did not realize how literally those chiseled words would be taken one day – his copy of Shakespeare’s second folio (1632), the crown jewel of a 2,000-volume book collection he bequeathed to the club, has been consigned to a 19 June auction at Sotheby’s New York.



What makes this volume so special, said Richard Austin, head of books and manuscripts at Sotheby’s, is the association. “The fact that it was owned by Edwin Booth,” he said, pausing. “He did so much to popularize Shakespeare in this country. He was one of the first to go back and perform the plays as originally issued.”

Edwin Booth was the dominant Shakespearean actor of his time, touring the world as Richard III and King Lear. After his younger brother, John Wilkes Booth, assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, Edwin assumed he would be forced to retire from the stage. But after a few months’ break, he returned to New York’s Winter Garden Theatre to play Hamlet, his signature role.

Early in 1888, Booth pitched an idea for an all-male social club, modeled on London’s Garrick Club, where theatre actors and other creative types could gather for meals and drinks. Without much ado, he purchased a Gramercy Park townhouse, populated the library with his own collection, and designated the third floor his private apartment. The Players Club ceremoniously opened its doors on New Year’s Eve 1888. Among its 15 incorporators were author Mark Twain (who later became the club’s second president) and General William T Sherman.

Booth’s ambition in creating such a club was, however, more than social. According to Edwin Booth’s Legacy, a heavily illustrated book of treasures published to coincide with the club’s centennial exhibition in 1989, Booth insisted on the “formation of a theatrical library” as a “main feature of the club”. His collection, which included actors’ autobiographies, prompt books and the second folio, formed the nucleus of that vision. In 1957, the library was formally incorporated as The Walter Hampden Memorial Library in honor of the club’s fourth president, though it was later renamed the Hampden-Booth Theatre Library. By 1989, the archive of 10,000 books, 50,000 playbills, 12,000 photographs and numerous theatrical artifacts, such as an autographed skull used in an 1890 Hamlet production, had consumed the fourth-floor bedrooms once rented by working actors.

Listing the club’s “glories” in the centennial exhibition catalogue, former director Robert A Carter touts Booth’s Second Folio. Any of the four original collections of Shakespeare’s comedies, histories, and tragedies – commonly referred to as “folios” – are prized. A copy of the first folio, of which only 233 remain, sold in 2006 for $5.2m. Although the second folio harbors few textual changes, it is worth much less. In complete (or nearly so) condition, second folios surface at auction once every three or four years, said Austin. The estimate on this one is slightly higher than previous offerings because of the provenance.

As to why Booth’s book, bound in gilded green morocco and boldly signed on the front blank “Edwin Booth The Players”, is being consigned now, some speculate that it is the latest desperate measure toward solvency. The Players has been plagued by accusations of bad bookkeeping, coupled with a decline in membership and the need for expensive exterior restoration for at least 15 years. Deaccessioning its cultural assets to make up the shortfall has been on the table just as long.

In 2000, a “complicated tax matter” forced the sale of a head-to-toe portrait of Booth himself, by club member John Singer Sargent, for $2.5m, according to the New York Post. A report in the New York Times revealed that the club was considering further sales of artwork, sculpture, and two Shakespeare folios (it also owns a third and a fourth), but “the library blocked the sale, claiming ownership of some of the pieces”.

Now, the folio is on the block. Hampden-Booth curator and librarian Raymond Wemmlinger, who has been with the Players for 32 years, explained that the library has become an important resource for studying theatrical history, particularly with regard to its manuscript letters and prompt books. The folio, however, “has been a collector’s item. It was nice for us to have it, but it was not being used by scholars.” While deaccessioning is unfortunate, he added, “we’re doing it to support what is still here. It will not impact our mission statement, and it will buy us time.”

“It must be serious if they’re parting with the folio,” said actor and longtime former club member Jerry verDorn. Even when money got tight in the late 1990s, and certain fundraising measures, such as naming rooms for donors or liquidating artwork, were contemplated, he said, “The folio was always off-limits. I’m surprised. I think it’s embarrassing.”