| Activity | Son of a newspaper man, in 1809 Collier succeeded his father as a reporter for the London 'Times' and the London 'Morning Chronicle'. 1811, became a student of the Middle Temple. Study of early English literature led to the publication of 'History of English Dramatic Poetry and Annals of the Stage', 1831, as a result of which he gained access to the private collections in the libraries of the Duke of Devonshire and the Earl of Ellesmere. From this source he published many of his early works relating to Shakespeare, 'New Facts', 1835, 'New Particulars', 1836 and 'Further Particulars', 1839. Collier was one of the founders of the Shakespeare Society (1840), for whom he published 'Memoirs of E. Alleyn', 1841, 'The Alleyn Papers', 1843, and 'Diary of Philip Henslowe', 1845, edited from the manuscript collection at Dulwich College. Collier's downfall came as a result of his announcement in 1852 that he owned a copy of the Second Folio (1632) of Shakespeare's works (known as the 'Perkins' Folio), which had annotations and textual emendations written in 17th Century handwriting. He published these as 'Notes and Emendations to the Text of Shakespeare's Plays', 1852. In 1859, the Folio was deposited with the British Museum where the annotations were exposed as modern forgeries. Collier died without confessing his fabrications, but ebidence found among his papers after his death gives undeniable proof of his culpability. A detailed list of his known fabrications can be found in E. K. Chambers 'William
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