First Folio Monument, London

Tucked away on Love Lane, right where the old Saint Mary Aldermanbury churchyard once stood, you’ll find a pink granite monument built in 1896—complete with a very dignified Shakespeare bust giving you the side-eye. Officially, it's here to honor the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays, but unofficially, it’s a big high-five to two of his old pals, Henry Condell and John Heminges. These two actors weren’t just theater buddies at The Globe—they were the ones who gathered up Shakespeare’s plays and got them printed after he died in 1616. They lived in this parish, and fittingly, are also buried here.

Now, the First Folio isn’t just any book. It rounded up 36 of Shakespeare’s plays, missing only a few outliers like Pericles, The Two Noble Kinsmen, Edward III, and the now-legendary lost works Cardenio and Love’s Labour’s Won. Out of some 750 copies printed, just 235 are still around today—mostly in museums, libraries, and a few very lucky living rooms.

And if you're wondering what all that old paper is worth? In 2001, one copy went under the hammer at Christie’s in New York for a cool $6.16 million. But there’s more! In 2020, another copy smashed records by selling for $10 million, officially crowning it the priciest literary work ever auctioned. Shakespeare: still making headlines, four centuries later...