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Friday luncheon meetings, unless otherwise noted, are held on the second Friday of September through June of each year. Beginning in January 2008, location may vary. Watch this space for details. Luncheon buffet begins at 11:30 a.m.; program 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. Members may make reservations by calling 312-255-3710 or by email to caxtonclub@newberry.org.
Wednesday dinner meetings and lectures are held on the third Wednesday of September through June of each year and begin with spirits, 5 p.m., dinner 6 p.m., lecture, 7 p.m. For the first six months of 2008, locations will vary. Watch this space for details. Meetings are open to Caxtonians and their guests. Members may make reservations by calling 312-255-3710 or by email to caxtonclub@newberry.org.
Video Recordings have been made of speaker presentations at many Caxton Club events. DVDs of these recordings are available for purchase.
A DVD Catalog describing each presentation along with details for placing
an order may be downloaded and viewed by clicking here.
May Luncheon Meeting
Friday May 8, 2009
Speakers: Paul Gehl and Jenny Schwartzberg
Topic:Behind the Scenes of a Recent Popular Newberry Exhibit
Location:The Union League Club, 65 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, IL
Caxtonian Paul Gehl, Custodian John M. Wing Foundation and Jenny Schwartzberg, collection development assistant at the Newberry Library, will entertain with a startling look into the lives of Newberry scholars, centering primarily on their recent co-curated show: "Artifacts of Childhood: 700 Years of Children's Books."
Paul and Jenny will tell about "the process of making our exhibit," including identifying themes, choosing items (65 out of 10,000!) and communicating just how strongly children's literature reflects the culture. Paul will speak
about Chicago's importance as a Children's Book Publishing Center. Added to this mix will be Jenny's inspiring story: born deaf, but with a creative, persistent and tireless mother, who (with the help of her hand-made books) taught her daughter to read, and eventually to speak a language she could not hear.
Attendees are invited to bring along a favorite children's book(s)
for display.
Our luncheon's are held at The Union League Club, 65 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago IL. A buffet lunch will be served starting at the 11:30 AM in the Main Dining Room on the sixth floor. A group of tables will be set aside and marked with signs for the Caxton Club. We will serve ourselves from the sumptuous buffet and sit at assigned tables. At about 12:25 PM, we will leave the dining room and head up to our program room on a different floor. The specific room location will be announced at lunch. The program which will start promptly at 12:30 PM. The cost is $30. Reservations are due by Tuesday, May 5th. Reservations can be made by calling
312-255-3710 or sending email to caxtonclub@newberry.org.
A free coat check is located on the first floor of The Union League Club. Valet parking is available at the club's Federal St. entrance (east side of the building) at a rate of $25 for four hours. An hourly rate garage is also located just south of The Union League Club on Federal St.
May Dinner Meeting
Wednesday May 20, 2009
Speaker: Nancy H. Ramage
Topic: Literary Circles in Baltimore and Paris: The Cone Sisters and Gertrude Stein
Location: Ruggles Hall in The Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton St., Chicago, IL
Claribel Cone and Gertrude Stein used to ride the tram together in the 1890s, when Claribel was teaching medicine at Johns Hopkins and Gertrude was a medical student there. The Cone and Stein families were in the same
circle of immigrant German Jewish families in Baltimore. Claribel and her younger sister, Etta, traveled with Gertrude and her brother Leo Stein in Italy, and Etta crossed the ocean with Gertrude, becoming her intimate friend. In 1905 Etta typed Gertrude’s first novel, Three Lives, from her manuscript.
When Alice B. Toklas moved in with Gertrude, a rivalry that was to last for decades erupted between Alice and Etta. Nonetheless, the Cone sisters regularly attended the Saturday evening salons at the Stein household, and bought pictures and furniture from Gertrude over many years. Indeed, many of the paintings in the Cone collection, bequeathed to the Baltimore
Museum of Art, had originally belonged to Gertrude or Leo Stein.
This lecture, with many previously unknown stories, is based on a new book by Nancy Ramage and her mother, Ellen B. Hirschland (sister and mother, respectively, of Caxtonian Ed Hirschland). Claribel and Etta Cone were
Nancy’s and Ed’s great-great aunts. The book, The Cone Sisters of Baltimore: Collecting at Full Tilt, is published by Northwestern University Press and copies will be available for purchase.
Dr. Ramage is Charles A. Dana Professor of the Humanities and Arts Emerita at Ithaca College.
The May Dinner Meeting will again be held at Ruggles Hall in The Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton St., Chicago, IL. Cocktails begin at 5 PM, dinner at 6 PM, and the presentation will start at 7:30 PM. The price for dinner has increased to $55. Reservations are required by noon on Friday, May 15th and can be made by calling 312-255-3710 or sending email to caxtonclub@newberry.org.
Parking is available with a validation of the claim check with the Newberry Library front desk security guard for $7 for 6 hours at parking garages located at 1025 North Clark St., 100 West Chestnut St. (Chestnut & Clark), and 100 East Walton St. The Library’s lot is also available to guests for evening parking, but the staff (who pay for their parking) typically do not begin leaving until between 5 and 6 PM, so there are no guarantees of spaces until they are vacated.
June Luncheon Meeting
Friday June 12, 2009
Speakers: James Tomes
Topic: WWI Through the Eyes of Those Who Fought
Location:The Union League Club, 65 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, IL
Caxtonian Jim Tomes; publisher, attorney, genealogist, returns to continue the fascinating stories of his relatives, many of whose published and unpublished writings reside in the Newberry Library. As Jim prepared to move to the city in the 1990's he came upon a box of "stuff" his father had previously given him, including letters his dad had written to his own mother. Especially intrigued by his father's portrayals of the life and emotions of a battlefield soldier, Jim, historian that he is, began to dig and found that Wilfred Owen, one of WWI's outstanding battlefield poets, served in a British infantry unit next to his father's during the battle of the Hindenburg line in October, 1918. After the battle Owen's unit replaced Tomes's American unit at the front and Owen was killed two weeks later, one week before the end of the war.
Armed with Owen's story, some of Owens letters to his mother and of course his poetry, Jim proceeded to write a biography of his father and a short commentary of the significance of the poetry and the short life of Owen. Jim's book, Dear Mother, addressed to his four children, now exists in book form with many photographs. Listen as Jim, with powerful first hand accounts and remarkable poetry, lights up this important and
personal history.
Our luncheon's are held at The Union League Club, 65 W. Jackson Blvd.,
Chicago IL. A buffet lunch will be served starting at the 11:30 AM in the Main Dining Room on the sixth floor. A group of tables will be set aside and marked with signs for the Caxton Club. We will serve ourselves from the sumptuous buffet and sit at assigned tables. At about 12:25 PM, we will leave the dining room and head up to our program room on a different floor. The specific room location will be announced at lunch. The program which will start promptly at 12:30 PM. The cost is $30. Reservations are due by Tuesday, June 9th. Reservations can be made by calling 312-255-3710 or sending email to caxtonclub@newberry.org.
A free coat check is located on the first floor of The Union League Club. Valet parking is available at the club's Federal St. entrance (east side of the building) at a rate of $25 for four hours. An hourly rate garage is also located just south of The Union League Club on Federal St.
June Dinner Meeting
Wednesday June 17, 2009
Speaker: Travis McDade
Topic: The "Lunacy" of Book Theft: A Chicago Story
Location: Ruggles Hall in The Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton St., Chicago, IL
Continuing the theme of our April symposium on Book Crime, we bring you a fascinating tale with a distinctly Chicago connection. The history of American book theft is sprinkled with as many misnomers as it is interesting characters. In the early 20th Century, the most prevalent idea about book thieves (still with us today in muted form) is that they
were "lunatics." This was a common diagnosis offered by doctors, lawyers, judges, and the press. Our speaker will discuss this faulty idea of book thieves. Its implications and its origins might well be with the case of one Chicago man.
Travis McDade is Curator of Law Rare Books at the University of Illinois College of Law. He is author of one book, The Book Thief: The True Crimes of Daniel Spiegelman, and several articles on the subject of book crime. At Illinois, he teaches a class called Rare Books, Crime, & Punishment.
The June Dinner Meeting will again be held at Ruggles Hall in The Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton St., Chicago, IL. Cocktails begin at 5 PM, dinner at 6 PM, and the presentation will start at 7:30 PM. The price for dinner has increased to $55. Reservations are required by noon on Friday, June 12th and can be made by calling 312-255-3710 or sending email to
caxtonclub@newberry.org.
Parking is available with a validation of the claim check with the Newberry Library front desk security guard for $7 for 6 hours at parking garages located at 1025 North Clark St., 100 West Chestnut St. (Chestnut & Clark), and 100 East Walton St. The Library’s lot is also available to guests for evening parking, but the staff (who pay for their parking) typically do not begin leaving until between 5 and 6 PM, so there are no guarantees of spaces until they are vacated.
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