April Evening Program

This event is being underwritten by the estate of Anthony J. Mourek.

Winston Churchill appeared in more editorial cartoons than any other politician in history. He was a figure cartoonists loved to ridicule, boost, or lampoon — sometimes all at once! Funnily enough, Churchill was not always hurt by unfavorable cartoons, but rather enjoyed them and had some of them framed and hung around the walls of his home at Chartwell. To mark the 150th anniversary of his birth, this talk presents the ups and downs of Churchill’s career through the eyes of political cartoonists from around the world, including the United States. The vast majority of the images that will illustrate the talk have not been seen since they were first published.

Dr. Tim Benson is Britain’s leading authority on political cartoons. He runs the Political Cartoon Gallery and Café which is located near the River Thames in Putney. He has produced numerous books on the history of cartoons.

The presentation will be followed by a discussion about political cartooning with Will Hansen, the Roger and Julie Baskes Vice President for Collections and Library Services, and Curator of Americana at the Newberry Library, and Scott Stantis, a syndicated editorial cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune.

This event will include access to an exhibit of original political cartoon art gifted by Anthony Mourek and held by The Newberry.

Doors open 5:15 PM CT for exhibit. Reception with full bar and passed hors d’oeuvres 5:30. Presentation and discussion 6:30. Evening concludes with a served buffet dinner including salad, choice of entree (with vegetarian selections), vegetable, dessert, and coffee. Wine, beer, and non-alcoholic beverages served tableside. Full bar available with dinner.

Books Registering for the program will allow you the opportunity to purchase copies of Churchill: A Life in Cartoons for $12 with pickup at The Newberry on the night of the program. Books will not be offered for sale night of program.

Registration and prepayment required by 5:00 PM April 21, no exceptions.

Parking Discounted parking available at 100 W. Chestnut. Present ticket to Newberry staff.

Club members: remember to bring your Caxton badge.

Register today.

May Midday Program

Well, here comes another of those Johnny-come-lately organizations that seem to pop up now and then. The Worshipful Company of Stationers in the City of London didn’t even get going until 1403 and wasn’t recognized with a royal charter until 1557. Practically yesterday.

Yet somehow this ragtag group of limners, bookbinders, booksellers, and text writers seemed to make a go of it. They came up with this strange idea of a “copyright” and were early adopters of those new fangled moveable types.

Not sure that there’s enough “English literature” produced since the fifteenth century to weave into a bookish tale, but our speaker, Dr. Ian Gadd from Bath Spa University will give it a go in a generously illustrated presentation about the History of the Stationers' Company — of which he is a freeman.

Though he was educated at Oxford and the University of Edinburgh he speaks enough American to be a faculty member of Virginia’s Rare Book School. He was editor of the first volume of The History of Oxford University Press and is general editor of the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jonathan Swift.

So don’t be stationary! Get moving and register today to join us at the Union League Club or to slip into this hot bubble Bath of a program at the Caxton Zoom Spa. (Towels not provided.)

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).

May Evening Program

In collaboration with Eugene Ostashevsky, Daniel Mellis has produced a visual translation of Tango with Cows, a key document of Russian Fu­turism, modernist typography, visual poetry, and artists’ books. Printed on brightly colored pentago­nal wallpaper in Moscow in 1914, the original book contains visual poetry by Vasily Kamensky set in a riotous variety of typefaces.

In Tango with Cows: Translation, Facsimile, and Commentary, the poetry was translated into English, while simultaneously preserving the typography and materiality of the original. Latin typefaces were created or found to exactly match every one of the fifty-nine Cyrillic fonts used in the book. Additionally, the wallpaper was recreated using silkscreen on custom-made Japanese paper, and the book was printed letterpress as was the original. A facsimile, commentary volume, and portfolio of large format reproductions accompanies the translation.

This talk will cover the history of the original publication as well as the development of the translation.

Daniel Mellis makes artist’s books and other text based artworks on such topics as the poetry of philosophy, the phenomenology of space, the built environment, and the law. Experimental letterpress and offset printing underpins much of his work. He is a Caxton Club grant recipient. A History of Light was the basis of this award and will be available for pre-purchase and viewing at the event. His work can be seen at www.danielmellis.com.

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

Book purchase Registering for the program will allow you the opportunity to purchase copies of Tango with Cows (standard edition) for $750, and the Caxton Club grant supported A History of Light for $150 with pickup at ULCC on the night of the program. Books will not be offered for sale night of program.

Transportation to the Union League Club at 65 W. 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).

Register today.

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

June Midday Program

Let us clue you in.

Composer Jerome Kern of Showboat and “The Way You Look Tonight” fame was an amazing book collector. And kern is going to figure prominently into the remarkable story you’ll be hearing … but it will be kern not Kern, for the composer in this tale was no musician.

Instead he was every bit a Wise man who conducted a daring swindle that caught eager bibliophiles in a net of fraud and deceit ... bibliophiles who included a prominent Caxtonian. Here’s a tantalizing hint: there’s a Ransom note that says Wise materials are being held in Austin, Texas. Talk about footprints — some fourteen feet are involved! Someone did a lot of boxing.

Another scrap of a clue about the forgery: a sonnet is on it.

More riddles than solutions. What we need is a clever Englishman to play Sherlock to our Watson. Ah! We’ve got one: Joseph Hone.

Dr. Hone is a reader in literature and book history at Newcastle University. With degrees from Oxford and Exeter he is much published. The Book Forger is his fourth bofok — and it’s the genuine article.

It’s elementary. If you enjoy true crime stories in which the only red is the blushing of all those who were taken in, and if your appetite was whetted by Tom Danneberg’s terrific review of the The Book Forger in the March/April Caxtonian, then you’ll want to forge ahead and register for this program 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).

Visit the Caxton Club booth at the 2025 MWABA Chicago Book & Paper Fair. Booksellers from across the Midwest and the USA will be offering fine antiquarian, rare, collectible, first edition and other books, ephemera, and maps.

https://mwaba.com/