Final Jeopardy: Collections (6-23-25)
The Final Jeopardy question (6/23/2025) in the category “Collections” was:
In 1896 the Vassar-educated wife of this man wrote, “thousands of dollars may be paid for a copy of Shakespeare”
New champ Andrew Brigger, a social studies teacher from Roseville, MN, won $16,000 last Friday. In Game 2, he is up against: Emily Croke, a stay-at-home mom from Denver, CO; and David Spelman, a marketing strategist from Livingston, NJ.
Round 1 Categories: Historic U.S. Businesses – Found in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet – Read – Yellow – Blue – Salute the Flag of Ecuador!
Andrew found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Historic U.S. Businesses” under the $1,000 clue on the 6th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $800, nobody else was on the board. Andrew bet $1,000 and he was RIGHT.
The Bismarck Tribune shocked the nation with the first full account of this 1876 event in which one of its correspondents died show
David finished in the lead with $5,800. Andrew was second with $2,000 and Emily was last with $1,400. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: Single-Named Singers – World Cities – Around the Body – Sunrise, Sunset – Before & After – Rip Van Winkle Slept Through It
David found the first Daily Double in “Sunrise, Sunset” under the $1,600 clue on the 4th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $8,600, $6,400 more than Emily in second place. David bet $4,400 and took a shot at it with Norway. That was WRONG.
Mt. Bromo is famous for its otherworldly sunrises; it’s one of this country’s more than 50 active volcanoes, more than any other country show
Andrew found the last Daily Double in “Before & After” under the $1,600 clue on the 15th pick of the round. He was in second place with $7,200, $200 less than Emily’s lead. Andrew bet $6,000 but drew a blank so he was WRONG.
Fruity dessert created at Brennan’s in New Orleans that had the 2011 hit song “Pumped Up Kicks” show
Emily finished in the lead with $12,200. David was second with $6,600 and Andrew was last with $2,000. All clues were shown.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHO IS HENRY CLAY FOLGER?
Henry Clay Folger (1857-1930) was a wealthy industrialist and philanthropist. He and wife, Emily, founded the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which boasts the world’s largest collection of Shakespeariana. I could not find the source of the quote in today’s clue. What I did find comes from “Interesting Facts”, an 1899 article in the St. John’s Telegraph-Journal. Here’s the pertinent part:
“The highest price ever paid for a copy of Shakespeare was $4,200, by Brayton Ives of New York. The Baroness Burdett Coutts of London paid $3,580 for a copy of the first edition some years ago. This high price was largely due to the binding and the great beauty of the book, and to a wealthy woman’s extravagance, but it had the effect of raising the price of first editions of Shakespeare, which up to that time had not been sold for more than $1,500.”
What the Baroness bought in 1864 was a Shakespeare First Folio, a first edition of Shakespeare’s plays. The copy she purchased is now part of the Folger Shakespeare Library’s collection, known as Folger First Folio 5.
Prepare for a shock if you want to know the value of those prices in today’s money. Find out on Measuring Worth.
Andrew wrote down Smith, perhaps thinking of James Smithson. He stood pat on his $2,000.
David went with Rockefeller. He lost $5,601 and finished with $999.
Emily got it right. She bet $1,001 and won the game with $13,201. Emily Croke is the new Jeopardy! champ.
A triple stumper from each round:
WORLD CITIES ($1600) A popular vacation spot, this Mexican city has a name that translates to “cow horn”
($2000) Because of its central location, it replaced Dar es Salaam as Tanzania’s national capital in 1974
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “20th CENTURY EVENTS”
It was immediately reported, “The flames are still leaping maybe 30, 40 feet from the ground the entire 811 feet length of” this show
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I was 3/3 on DD. As I am nearly 55, Andrew has no excuse for the third DD.
As to FJ, I had no answer, and zero idea. VJ, I do believe that you are being overly kind to Andrew, in re: his Final response. I was not so charitable, and thought he just took one of the most common surnames in the US, and crossed his fingers!
Props to Emily for coming back from a distant third. Andrew overreached on that big DD wager and ended up in the dumpster. I immediately thought of Andrew Carnegie for Final and didn’t go any further. My university library and others in the US bore his surname.
First DD was a cinch; I thought of Indonesia but probably would have said Italy for the 2nd; 3rd DD a total mystery.
They left several on the table I thought at least one would know: city/capital on the Rhine (birthplace of my mother’s father); men’s gland; islets of Langerhans; Ecuador’s embassy in England; ancient staff of Mercury (I heard it on the radio about 60 years ago and never forgot it); Ecuadorian port. I’m sure Dr Jason knew at least three of these!
I was lucky to find that 1899 “Interesting Facts” article, then find out one of the books in it is now in the Folger collection. I’m going to transcribe the highlights from that article later and put them in a separate post. It’s interesting stuff!
I found the quote! The comma gets in the way: “Hundreds, even thousands, of dollars may be paid for a copy of Shakespeare, or it may be bought for a dime.” (page 5)
That’s great, Rose. Thanks so much! That explains the Vassar reference — she wrote it in her thesis. As you pointed out, the sentence is on page 5 (which is page 10 in the pdf navigation). It is near the bottom of the page in the sentence that begins “Shakespeare, then is the Shakespeare…”
Sorry your comment didn’t publish sooner. I was already offline when you submitted it. Comments with hyperlinks always go into moderation. Obviously, spammers would have a field day if I let them publish, and the length of them would also blow the pages up! But I will always fix legit links up and approve helpful comments.
No problem and thanks for fixing the formatting! I totally get it, and glad I could share the source for you. I appreciated that the quote you found explains exactly why she used “thousands” as the upper limit at the time. And yeah the fact that it’s from her thesis definitely clarifies why they referenced Vassar, other than pointing to the USA.