September Midday Program

Remember why we chose you for this assignment. You’re a reader. September 12 is the day all your training is put to the test.

The code will be included in the special communique you’ll receive after you register. Memorize it and make it your own.

It will be vital as you rendezvous with the other Caxton agents to interrogate the author of Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II (Ecco Books – An Imprint of Harper Collins).

Who is this phantom? It’s Elyse Graham, codename Seawolf.

Her cover story? Historian. Professor. Ivy covered halls of Stony Brook University, which cleverly hides in plain sight … in Stony Brook, New York. Graduate of Princeton. MIT. Yale.

This is your chance to unmask crafty saboteurs like Adele Kibre – medievalist. Sherman Kent – Yale historian. And more. You know the types. A chilling glance. A penetrating question. They knew how to wound.

Location. Steel Room. Eighth Floor. Union League Club. Noon. September 12. A big screen on the wall followed by a luncheon that will challenge the very fabric of your will power. (The soup alone could do in your diet.)

Or, if your cover’s been blown, head for your safe house and login. Zoom will be your handler and using Chat to ask questions has a way of making speakers talk.

Gathered at the Union League Club or hunkered down in your safe house, trench coats are optional.

Live attendance and optional lunch

View Zoom program on eighth floor, Steel Room, Union League Club. Presentation begins at 12:00 PM CT. Optional lunch immediately following in the fourth floor Rendezvous. $35 includes non-alcoholic beverage, a cup of soup, and your choice of sandwich, salad, or hot entree, tax, and tip.

Zoom presentation is free and open to all.

Zoom begins at 12:00PM CT/1:00 PM ET. Preregistration required via website.

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.

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 curbside wait. Cabs will accept all payment forms, following the payment procedures you experience with a street-hailed cab.

If you are traveling by car, the Union League Club offers valet parking for Caxton events at $35.00. You must register and prepay in advance through the Caxton Club. Valet parking options will now be included as an option with all event registrations.

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).

October Midday Program

Caxtonians do love to go searching after a first. A first edition.

A first printing. A first of its kind. Especially when the prize is a one-and-only.

Now here’s a chance to realize that quest. We’ll be taking you to New York’s Hispanic Society of America Library, which houses the first editions of both parts of Don Quixote (1605 and 1615). But wait, there’s more. The library holds …

• the sole surviving leaf of the first Bible in any vernacular (1478)

• the first Spanish grammar (1492) and dictionary (1495)

• the first book to be printed during its author’s lifetime, Speculum vitae humanae (1468)

… as well as the only copy in the world of the first edition of one of the most celebrated works of Spanish literature, Comedia de Calisto y Melibea, better known as La Celestina.

La Celestina is regarded as the first masterpiece of Spanish prose and the greatest work of the early Renaissance in Spain.

Seeing and hearing about just a bit of this would be worth charging some windmills, let alone logging into Zoom or taking an elevator at the Union League Club. Especially because our guide will be La Celestina expert Vanessa Pintado, assistant curator of manuscripts and rare books.

Let Sancho Panza to water the horses while you battle to the head of the line by registering today!

Live attendance and optional lunch

View Zoom program on eighth floor, Steel Room, Union League Club. Presentation begins at 12:00 PM CT. Optional lunch immediately following in the fourth floor Rendezvous. $35 includes non-alcoholic beverage, a cup of soup, and your choice of sandwich, salad, or hot entree, tax, and tip.

Zoom presentation is free and open to all.

Zoom begins at 12:00PM CT/1:00 PM ET. Preregistration required via website.

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.

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 curbside wait. Cabs will accept all payment forms, following the payment procedures you experience with a street-hailed cab.

If you are traveling by car, the Union League Club offers valet parking for Caxton events at $35.00. You must register and prepay in advance through the Caxton Club. Valet parking options will now be included as an option with all event registrations.

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).