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Interview with Michael Witmore, Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library

12 September 2011
The Collation, the blog of the Folger Shakespeare Library, has inaugurated a series of interviews with the Folger staff. The first interview introduces the director Michael Witmore.
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“The chill. Old books need a special environment, and this is not necessarily the environment that humans would select for themselves. I find the vault a bracing experience. Often, when I am in the middle of the rare stacks, I think that I am within 500 walking paces of almost every book I will consult in my working life. So the question becomes, Why can’t I simply walk to all of those places now? For a scholar, you realize that a large part of your thinking life is on the shelves, but also, that being next to the physical objects does not bring you any closer to the “itinerary” you will eventually follow through that forest of paper.”

The Collation, the blog of the Folger Shakespeare Library, has inaugurated a series of interviews with the Folger staff. The first interview introduces the director Michael Witmore.



Read the whole interview on The Collation:


>>> Q & A: Michael Witmore, Director