Experience the next major exhibition of the Folger Shakespeare Library’s year-long celebration of Shakespeare’s incredible impact in the 400 years since his death. Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of Celebrity explores the parallels lives of two of the world’s original celebrities, both in anniversary years—William Shakespeare’s 400th and on the eve of Jane Austen’s 200th—and how their fame lives on in fan fiction, movies and TV, tsotchkes, and more.  

Will & Jane—who are on a first-name basis with the world—uncovers early stories of the very nature of celebrity and how we continue to reinvent and “idolize” Shakespeare and Austen in popular culture, with events and objects that bear more than a striking resemblance to contemporary celebrity. The exhibit opens this Saturday, August 6!

This post is brought to you by the Folger Shakespeare Library.