Collecting Shakespeare by Stephen H. Grant

Author:Stephen H. Grant
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2014-08-10T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Hotspur and Hal

Two Henrys Compete

* * *

HOTSPUR: If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth.

PRINCE: Thou speak’st as if I would deny my name.

HOTSPUR: My name is Harry Percy.

PRINCE: Why then I see

A very valiant rebel of the name.

I am the Prince of Wales; and think not, Percy,

To share with me in glory any more.

Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere,

Nor can one England brook a double reign

Of Harry Percy and the Prince of Wales.

1 Henry IV, 5.4.59–68

ALTHOUGH FAR MORE CORDIAL than the military rivalry of Shakespeare’s Hotspur and Hal, the bibliographic duels Henry Folger and Henry Huntington intensely fought were not on the battlefield but in auction bids, and not for a crown but for the plays of the very man who created the “Harry vs. Harry” of 1 Henry IV.

Three published biographies and 200 acres in a posh Southern California suburb tell us a lot about Henry E. Huntington. Aided by nepotism, he trained as a railroad executive under the tutelage of his uncle, Collis P. Huntington of New York. Later president of the Pacific Electric Railway, Henry developed southern California rail lines as well as water and power companies. The “king of trolleys” built an extensive network of streetcars in Los Angeles. He inherited, but he also made, a large fortune.

Huntington’s dominance in both art and book markets fascinated the American and British press. When he purchased in New York a two-volume vellum set of the Gutenberg Bible, he paid $50,000—twice the highest amount ever paid for a book at auction. From the Duke of Westminster, Huntington acquired, for $728,000, one of the best-known British portraits, Gainsborough’s Blue Boy. Henry and his wife Arabella planned and constructed buildings on a vast estate among the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains for his spectacular residence, library, and museum, surrounded by 120 acres of botanical gardens that included a nonpareil collection of desert plants.

At first glance, Henry C. Folger and Henry E. Huntington led similar lives. Both blue-eyed boys were born in New York State in the 1850s and died in their seventies. Growing up, both imbibed deep parental values of churchgoing, close family ties, and a strong work ethic. Huntington attended Henry Ward Beecher’s Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn (where Emily Jordan Folger later taught Sunday school). The collectors’ chosen industries—petroleum and railroads—expanded immensely and profitably in their lifetimes. Family or close friends ushered each man into his chosen industry. Unsurprisingly, under these circumstances, they both rose to the top. The two shared impeccable timing that allowed them to play a determining role in pioneer fields begging for creativity and offering wide latitude for imagination, foresight, management skill, and huge profits.

In the late nineteenth century, the public grew to mistrust captains of industry, charging them with predatory practices and immoral behavior. While Huntington and Folger were considered relatively upstanding individuals who avoided the muckrakers’ most vituperative attacks, they lived and worked under the shadow of suspicion over John D. Rockefeller in oil and Jay Gould in railroads—two who shared the title of most hated man in America.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.