Book Value Folger Looks at Literary Ownership Over the Centuries by Gary Tischler Thys Boke Is Myne,î now at the Folger Shakespeare Library, is both a statement of ownership and the title of an exhibition. If youíve ever held a book in your hand and considered its weight and found it pleasing, if a room without books seems naked and empty to you, or if bookstores and libraries draw you like a magnet, well, then this is the exhibition for you. It is all about books and the people who loved and continue to love themóthe people who collected, borrowed, wrote in, and filled their stately homes with books, splashing their names and signatures all over them. The hallway of the Folger Library houses this exhibition, much of which is based on offerings from the libraryís own collection, giving ìThys Bokeî the not so surprising flavor of the Bard himself with the many volumes of plays and poetry found here. ìThys Boke is Myne Prynce Henryî also happens to be the pronouncement written by Henry VIII when he was a schoolboy, who put this inscription of ownership on a copy of ìCicero.î ìThatís very typical of Henry,î a woman glancing at the exhibition said. ìThis book is mine. This castle is mine. This woman is mine. This country is mine.î Much more tender and unassuming is an inscription from Anne of Clevesóa future bride of the very same and oft-married Henryóin a book of prayers: ìI besiche your grace humbly, when ye loke on thys remember me.î Of course, it doesnít take a high-handed king to be insistent about the rights of ownership when it comes to books. Faithless lovers could not excite more jealousy or rage, or sense of love and pride. The 16th-century book owner Miles Blomefylde left a marking saying, ìI am Myles Blomefyldeís bookî on one of his many, many books. And it can be safe to assume that nobody messed with a 1600 copy of ìThe Ghost of Lucreceî after reading that George Fallowes ìis the true owner of this book and he that stealeth this book he shall be hanged on a hook and if the hook do fail he shall be hanged on a nail.î The exhibition can be seen as esoteric in some ways. It deals with provenance, after all, and such matters as inscriptions, authenticity, bindings, print markings, and the question of how books become rare and valued. For instance, first editions or true folios of Shakespeareís plays are, of course, extremely valuable, and authentic, untouched books from Renaissance times are valuable for their age and condition. But some books are valuable simply because of who owned, begged, borrowed or stole them, which is to say that a ragged little book of Shakespeareís sonnets from the mid-1800s hardly seems worth a dime, until you know that the poet Walt Whitman carried it around with him in his travels. This is value by associationóas reflected in a copy of the book ìShakespeare in Harlemî (1942), which is signed ìLangî and includes these lines by the famous African American poet Langston Hughes: ìThe wishbone is broken. The dice have thrown a deuce. The songís an old familiar tune: Whatís the use?î You can also find books that Sir Walter Raleighóthe Renaissance English explorer and poet who complained of not having enough booksóowned and wrote, including his personal copy of ìHistory of the World,î written while he was imprisoned in the tower to be eventually executed during the reign of James I. There are books owned by other famous folk: Elizabeth of York, Edmund Spenser, the powerful dukes and counts of the court of Queen Elizabeth I, famed Shakespearean actors, a book of proclamations by King James I, and a complete set of the ìTemple Shakespeareî given to the Folger Library by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1943 with the inscription, ìThis set was given by me to my mother Sarah Delano Roosevelt about 1900 and was in the room at Hyde Park until her death in 1941, when it came back to me.î The literary tidbits and the presence of greatness are all over the place here. Many of these books came from the collections of men and women renowned in their time for the sheer number of books they ownedóupward of 7,000 in one case, and 4,000 in another. They were simply people who loved booksóso much so in one case that they slept in a hallway while the books took over their house. Some collectors treated their books with the utmost care, as if it was Dresden china, while others, such as Samuel Johnson, treated them poorly, writing all over them, bending the pages, and scribbling and doodling in them. All of these peopleóalong with the dwindling number of people who find solace, pleasure, education and joy in books todayócan be said to be the descendants of Francesco Petrarch, a man who very much defined the essence of books. Books, he wrote, are ìwelcome, assiduous companions, always ready to encourage you, comfort you, advise you, reprove you and take care of you, to teach you the worldís secrets Ö and never bring you Ö lamentation, jealous murmurs, or deception.î ìThys Boke Is Myneî runs through March 1 at the Folger Shakespeare Library, 201 East Capitol St., SE. For more information, please call (202) 544-7077 or visit www.folger.edu. Gary Tischler is a contributing writer to The Washington Diplomat.