The Caxton Club brings together archivists, authors, binders, book artists, booksellers, collectors, conservators, designers, editors, librarians, printers, publishers, scholars, and others. Members from these diverse backgrounds form a community that shares a love of printed, handwritten, and digital books and related textual objects, such as pamphlets, broadsides, maps, and ephemera. The club provides a forum to learn about the arts, history, and technologies of these materials, as well as a space to share the joys of appreciating and collecting them.

Sarah M. Pritchard, President....... Lou Pitschmann, Vice-President...... Leslie J. Winter, Secretary....... Jeffrey Jahns, Treasurer.......
CAXTONIAN.ORG: A PUBLICLY AVAILABLE ONLINE ARCHIVE OF THE FIRST 23 YEARS OF THE CAXTONIAN.
BOOK LAUNCH. DR. RONALD BAILEY, CLAUDETTE HUNT, CAXTONIAN DR. IRVIN HUNT, JACKIE VOSSLER, AND DR. DESIRÉE MCMILLION
GRANTS: 2019–20 grant recipients: Meha Rey, Yann Trividic, Sara Jensen, Kathie DeLamater, and Annabel Pinkney.
CHICAGO 101 AUTHORS: Each of the 101 titles is the focus of an essay by a leading scholar, writer, or bibliophile.
MELLON FELLOWS: Each year the club provides copies of Other People’s Books to Mellon Fellows at Rare Book School.

Caxton Members: Submit your item to our online exhibit, Caxtonians’ Collections.
Exhibit is open to all.




UPCOMING CAXTON PROGRAMS

Caxton Club programs run from September through June with a second Friday daytime program at Noon CT and a third Wednesday evening program at 6:30 PM CT. Please see detailed descriptions for available programs.

Virtual programs will consist of quality Zoom presentations with real-time Q&A features immediately following. All programs — virtual or in-person — require advance registration on the club’s website. This allows Zoom instructions to be sent before programs, and for planning for in-person programs where space is limited. As usual, we will record all programs and make them available for viewing in the Past Programs section of our website’s Members Only section.

Only registrants who miss a program or wish to view it again will be given the opportunity to request a link to a recording of the program.

  • Zoom – Deborah Parker on Becoming Belle da Costa Greene

    • 11/08/2024
    • 12:00 PM
    • FRI, 11/08/2024 12:00 PM CT/1:00 PM ET Zoom presentation free and open to all. Preregistration required via website.
    Register

    November Midday Program



    Belle da Costa Greene was Pierpont Morgan’s personal librarian from 1908–1913 and from 1924–1948 the first Director of the Morgan Library. Though a striking and much written about figure, much of what is known about Greene derives from her more than 600 letters to art historian Bernard Berenson. While Greene’s letters to the connoisseur have proven invaluable to writers seeking to reconstruct the larger narrative of her life, the artistry of the letters and the way in which her writing creates a singular self, have gone unnoticed. Parker’s talk will examine Greene’s vivid account of her working life — how she managed her education, her vibrant responses to books, and some of her most signal accomplishments.

    Deborah Parker is Professor of Italian at the University of Virginia. Her research expertise and teaching focus on Italian and Mediterranean visual and print cultures in the medieval and early modern eras. Her latest book, Becoming Belle da Costa Greene — A Visionary Librarian Through Her Letters is published by Villa I Tatti.

    Register today!

    Preregistration required via website. Zoom presentation is free and open to all. Please forward this notice to anyone who may find it of interest.

    Even if you can’t attend at the scheduled time, if you’re interested, please register. After the program, we’ll send an email to all registrants, asking if you’d like a link to the complete recording. That way you can see the program even if you couldn’t attend live, ran into technical issues, or simply wanted to watch it again.

    Show details

  • Cait Coker on “We Are Each Other’s Harvest:” Gwendolyn Brooks and the Formation of the Black Literary Canon

    • 11/20/2024
    • 5:30 PM
    • WED 11/20/2024 5:30 PM CT Union League Club, 65 W. Jackson Blvd. $60, includes presentation and hot buffet. Full beverage service available (additional cost). Registration and prepayment required by 5:00 PM CT 11/15/24.
    Register

    November Evening Program



    August 24, 1949: Annie Allen by Gwendolyn Brooks is published. It is her second volume of poetry, and readers admire and struggle with its technical forms, its atomizations, and critiques of racial life in Black America. At the book’s center is a forty-three-stanza poem called “The Anniad” in which Brooks’s titular heroine comes of age in epic verse, followed immediately by an “Appendix” of “leaves from a loose-leaf war diary.”

    May 1, 1950: Annie Allen wins the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. The book has never been reprinted. Until now.

    Join us as Caxtonian Cait Coker explores Gwendolyn Brooks’s literary legacy and her place in American letters – and the exhibition currently on display at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign – on the seventy-fifth anniversary of the publication of Annie Allen.

    Cait Coker is Associate Professor and Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. A scholar who focuses on the intersections of gender, genre, and publishing history, she is also Co-Editor of the Women in Book History Bibliography at womensbookhistory.org.

    This event will include a hot buffet with vegetarian options. Club members: remember to bring your Caxton badge.

    Register today.

    Book purchase Registering for the program will allow you the opportunity to purchase copies of the 75th anniversary edition of Annie Allen for $27. Books to be picked up the night of the program.

    Transportation to the Union League Club at 65 West Jackson Blvd., Chicago.

    The Union League Club is easily accessible through many public transportation methods. Additionally, the following options are available for those who wish to travel by cab or car.

    The Union League Club front desk offers a connection to cab service through Curb. The desk will call cabs for members and all guests while allowing riders to remain inside until the cab arrives. No curb side wait. Cabs will accept all payment forms, following the payment procedures you experience with a street-hailed cab.

    Spot Hero is an independent parking option, generally offering spots at the 318 S. Federal Street garage adjacent to the Union League Club. You may reserve and pay for a guaranteed parking spot through the Spot Hero app or website (spothero.com).

    Show details

  • Allie Alvis on Weird and Wonderful Treasures of the Winterthur Library

    • 12/13/2024
    • 12:00 PM
    • Fri 12/13/2024 12:00PM CT Zoom program and live at ULCC. Preregistration required via website.

    December Program

    Allie Alvis, Curator of Special Collections, Winterthur Library

    Show details

  • Caxton Club Holiday

    • 12/18/2024
    • 5:30 PM
    • Wed 12/18/24 5:30PM CT Union League Club, 65 W. Jackson Blvd.


    Show details

  • Caxton Club Annual Meeting, Registration Required

    • 05/22/2025
    • 6:30 PM
    • via Zoom

    This calendar event serves as a placeholder for our upcoming 2025 Annual Caxton Club Meeting to be held on Thursday, 22 May 2025 at 6:30 PM CST.

    Registration for this event will be via the Caxton Club website. Please check the website in the weeks ahead of this event to register. The event will be held via Zoom.

    If you have any questions or concerns, please contact secretary@caxtonclub.org.


    Show details

MIDDAY PROGRAMS

EVENING PROGRAMS

Items of Interest

Caxton Club Member Opportunities

  • No upcoming events

Read the current CAXTONIAN



Read the current FABS Journal





211 South Clark Street,
PO Box 2329,
Chicago IL 60604-9997


Tel: +1 (312) 970-1294
info@caxtonclub.org