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.

BOOK LAUNCH. DR. RONALD BAILEY, CLAUDETTE HUNT, CAXTONIAN DR. IRVIN HUNT, JACKIE VOSSLER, AND DR. DESIRÉE MCMILLION

CAXTONIAN.ORG: A PUBLICLY AVAILABLE ONLINE ARCHIVE OF THE FIRST 21 YEARS OF THE CAXTONIAN.

GRANTS: 2019–20 grant recipients: Meha Rey, Yann Trividic, Sara Jensen, Kathie DeLamater, and Annabel Pinkney.

PUBLICATIONS: The club has published 153 formal publications and other printed pieces in its 125+ years.

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 EVENTS

Caxton Club programs will resume in September with a second Friday daytime program at Noon CT. All daytime Caxton Club events will be virtual. Third Wednesday evening programs begin at 6:30 PM CT and will either be virtual-only (Zoom) events or in-person events with virtual (Zoom) access. Live program activity times may differ, so please check times listed for each event.

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.

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Alex Johnson & James Oses on Rooms of Their Own - Where Great Writers Write

When
09/09/2022

12:00 PM

Location
September 9, 2022

Register

September Midday Program

“Writing is the art of applying the ass to the seat.” – Dorothy Parker

A blunt assessment indeed … but Hemingway would not have stood for sitting while Proust would gladly have taken her injunction lying down.

Where and how fifty writers wrote (and write) is the subject of Alex Johnson’s delightful prose and James Oses’s beautiful illustrations. Their book, Rooms of Their Own, brings to life the settings which inspired authors from Emily Dickinson to Haruki Murakami. Join us to step into rooms where visitors were often not welcome. (Steinbeck kept only a single chair in his office to discourage any but the briefest interruptions.)

London-based Alex Johnson is a journalist and author whose work you may have seen in Fine Books & Collections, The Independent, and in popular blogs about garden offices and creative bookcase designs. Among his works is Book Towns - 45 Paradises of the Printed Word.

Also joining us from London will be James Oses, whose captivating illustrations reveal the look and feel of each author’s workspace. He has created illustrations for Penguin Random House, Marks & Spencer, The Guardian, and a host of other clients.

Make a date and then choose where you’ll watch this delightful glimpse into the rooms where it happened!

Three Options for attending

Zoom begins promptly at Noon CT. Preregistration required via website. Zoom presentation is free and open to all.

Lunch and live attendance Lunch on 4th Floor Carvery, Union League Club. Food selections include soup, salad, sandwich, or hot entree. Arrive by 11:00 AM as we will need to assemble by Noon for the program. Payment based on option selected and credit card will be required. Reservations required by September 6.

Live attendance at program 8th Floor, Union League Club. Presentation begins promptly at Noon. Attend Zoom presentation with other Caxtonians and guests. You will have the opportunity to ask questions of our speaker(s) via Zoom. Room will remain open until 2:00 PM for further conversations. Reservations required by September 6 as seating is limited.

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Jill Gage on “The Best Penman of our Age”: The Lettering of George Salter

When
09/21/2022

5:30 PM

Location
9/21/2022

September Evening Program

Details to come.

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Devin Fitzgerald on Leonardo da Vinci and the Elmer Belt Collection of Vinciana

When
10/14/2022

12:00 PM

Location
10/14/2022

October Midday Program

Details to come.

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Douglas Pfeiffer on Authorial Personality and the Making of Renaissance Texts: The Force of Character

When
10/19/2022

5:30 PM

Location
10/19/2022

October Evening Program

Details to come.

Show details