I was honored to deliver the Wing Foundation Lecture on the History of the Book at the Newberry Library on March 3, 2022. The event took place in person after two years of virtual events. I’m grateful to Jill Gage, Custodian of the John M. Wing Foundation on the History of Printing, for the invitation to speak about some new ideas around my next book project, “Accidental Shakespeare,” and to the staff at the Newberry for supporting this program.
The talk, entitled “Shakespeare in Type” and which you can watch above, was structured as a quartet of vignettes, each of which speak to the significance of moveable type printing (the technology and its aesthetics) in our ever-evolving relationship with Shakespeare and his writing. Topics range from pilcrows (¶s) to a letterpress artists’ book produced during pandemic lockdown.
It was a true pleasure to share this work.