RARE "Shakespearean Scholar" William James Rolfe Clipped Signature For Sale

William James Rolfe, Litt.D. (December 10, 1827 – July 7, 1910) was an American educator andShakespeareanscholar.Rolfe was born inNewburyport, Massachusettson December 10, 1827.He attendedAmherst Collegefrom 1845 through 1848, but left without graduating after three years due to financial hardship. Amherst, though, nonetheless later awarded him an honorary degree. Between 1852 and 1868, he served as headmaster of high schools atDorchester,Lawrence,Salem, andCambridge, Massachusetts. He married Eliza Jane Carew in Dorchester on July 30, 1856. Early in his career, he edited selections fromOvidandVirgiland (in collaboration) theCambridge Course of Physics(six volumes, 1867–68). Rolfe's Shakespearean work began with an American edition ofGeorge Lillie Craik'sEnglish of Shakespeare(3rd revised ed., 1864,LCCN28-15228), which Crosby and Ainsworth published in 1867 (LCCN03-26761). This led to his preparation forHarper & Brothersof a complete edition of Shakespeare – the Friendly Edition (forty volumes, 1870–83; new edition, 1903–07). Rolfe's editions proved to be the best-selling versions in America (during a time of increased use of Shakespeare in high school classrooms) due both to his credentials as a high school administrator and to his use ofBowdlerizationof the text in order to remove much of Shakespeare's lewd content.Rolfe also edited acomplete editionofTennyson(twelve volumes, 1898) and verse by many of the other great English poets. He wrote a very usefulSatchel Guide to Europe, revised annually for 35 years, and at least five other books:

·Shakespeare the Boy(1896)

·The Elementary Study of English(1896)

·Life of Shakespeare(1901)

·Life of William Shakespeare(1904)

·Shakesperean Proverbs(1908)

William James Rolfe died on July 7, 1910, at the home of a son inTisbury, Massachusetts.[1]He was the father ofJohn Carew Rolfe, Charles J. Rolfe and George Rolfe, who may all have been academicians.