No Macbeth or Viola?

Imagine no Macbeth or Viola or... Hamlet?!

This may have been the case had it not been for John Heminges and Henry Condell, two actors of the King's Men, the theatre company that originally performed William Shakespeare's plays.

Seven years after the Bard's death in 1616, Heminges and Condell produced the First Folio containing 36 of Shakespeare's plays, including "Twelfth Night" and "Antony and Cleopatra". Many experts say that had not this folio been compiled, the works could have been lost to Time. Shakespeare himself never attempted to get his works published during his lifetime.

The task thus fell to his mates, who knew how important these plays would be. On July 13, Sotheby's of London will be auctioning off a rare first-edition folio to private collectors. Only one other folio is in the hands of a private collector: oil magnate J. Paul Getty. Of the approx. 750 copies originally printed, about a third survive (in varying conditino) and can be found in libraries and institutions throughout the world.

The folio that Sotheby's is auctioning has its original calf-skiin binding and also includes ink markings made by previous owners. For the past 300 years, the folio has been part of the Dr. Williams' Library in London. The sale of the book should help the library with its own preservation.

The expected value of the book? Sotheby's expects it to sell between $4 million and $6 million.