An unknown collector would give two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for it!
The newspapers inaugurated a public subscription to keep the volume in England, claiming that its loss could never be estimated as it was the most precious memorial in existence of the golden age of English literature.
It was suspected, of course, that it would go to America.
After six months, it was found impossible to collect the money required. There was, apparently, but little interest in things of a literary and artistic nature. If it had been for a new battleship costing twenty times this amount, the money would have been forthcoming instantly.
It was finally announced in the London papers that the celebrated collector, William S. Fields of New York, was the fortunate purchaser of the world-famed volume. The news was heralded the world over.
When it arrived, Robert Hooker, an intelligent, but by no means wealthy, bibliophile, made a request to see it; to hold within his mortal hands this magnificent relic of the two great Elizabethans.
"No!" was Fields' curt response.
It had been rumored that Robert Hooker was founding a museum in some unknown spot—but where the money was to come from was a mystery.
It appeared that the Bacon-Shakespeare volume was locked up in a steel vault in the Fields' residence, guarded by an approved time-lock and other interesting features. The book was never to be removed from the safe, unless in the presence of the owner and a trusted servant.
Robert Hooker was extremely desirous of adding this treasure to his mythical museum! He said it was an outrage that one man, on account of the accident of great wealth, should become the sole possessor of it. It was a shock to public decency! It should repose, as it had for more than seventy years, in a library or an institution, where it could be freely seen. He therefore resolved to add it to his own.