September 2013 Dinner Meeting

Speaker: Stephen Clarke

“Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill Press”

Stephen Clarke is a London lawyer and independent scholar, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He has written extensively on Samuel Johnson, William Beckford and Horace Walpole. He lives near London. He has recently written The Strawberry Hill Press and Its Printing House. Strawberry Hill Press, founded in 1757, is the most celebrated of the early English private presses, unique for the importance of the books, pamphlets, and ephemera it produced. From the ground- breaking poetry of Gray’s Odes to founding works of art history, from antiquarian research to exercises in social gallantry, the Press is unmatched in the combination of its range and its longevity. His book relates the productions of the Press to the contemporary fashion for extra-illustration and discusses the artists who provided those illus- trations, and also the role of Thomas Kirgate, Walpole’s long-serving printer, in distributing Strawberry Hill material to collectors.

Union League, 65 W. Jackson, Chicago. Timing: spirits at 5:00, dinner at 6:00, program at 7:30.