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 as a PDF.

January Luncheon

Friday, January 13, 2012, Union League Club

Junie Sinson

“Swedish Academy Inner Workings: Why 19 years since an American has won the Nobel Prize in Literature?”

Caxtonian Junie Sinson returns to the podium to talk on a subject dear to his heart: the Nobel Prize in Literature. Since he has col- lected the speeches of Nobel literature laureates for many years, it is a topic on which he is well-qualified to speak. He has had an enduring friendship with Goren Malmquist, a senior member of the Swedish Academy, and through whom he has met other Academy members and their support staff. Junie's talk will explore: Why, since Toni Morrison in 1993, has no American received the literature prize? Is the Academy anti-American, Eurocentric or a group of individuals who have lost their mission? Just who has led the Academy and how has this leadership recently changed? Does the prize have an impact on the direction of American and world literature? What can we anticipate for the future?

Junie is a recently retired trial attorney and a past President of the Caxton Club. A must afternoon regarding a group known to “keep a lot of secrets.”

January luncheon: Union League Club, 65 W. Jackson Boulevard. Luncheon buffet (main dining room on six) opens at 11:30 am; program (in a different room, to be announced) 12:30-1:30. Luncheon is $30. For reservations call 312-255-3710 or email caxtonclub@newberry.org; reservations are needed by noon Tuesday for the Friday luncheon.

January Dinner

Wednesday, January 18, 2012, Cliff Dwellers

Regina Buccola

“True, Original Copies: A Tale of a Shakespearean Paper Trail … or Two … or Three”

As Chicago Shakespeare Theater marks its 25th anniversary, it seems appropriate to consider the persistent authorship debates that dog the playwright. Two of the most recent popular salvos in the debate, Roland Emmerich’s film Anonymous and Arthur Philips' novel The Tragedy of Arthur, predicate their challenges to Shakespeare as author on the sheer lack of material (specifically, bibliographic) as evidence of the author’s hand. A third, Gary Taylor’s introduction to Thomas Middleton: The Collected Works, accepts Shakespeare as the author of the plays, but modifies his role, in some, to one of collaboration; moreover, Taylor explicitly challenges the primacy of Shakespeare as &ldqup;the soul of the age” by positing Middleton as “our other Shakespeare.” Is there an author without a (handwritten) text? Can collaborative works be used establish the oeuvre of a single author? If there is an “other” Shakespeare, does that diminish the original? Buccola is Associate Professor of English at Roosevelt University, and Scholar-in- Residence at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

January dinner: Cliff Dwellers Club, 200 S. Michigan, 22nd floor. Timing: spirits at 5:00, dinner at 6:00, program at 7:30. Dinner is $48, drinks are $5 to $9. For reservations call 312-255-3710 or email caxtonclub@newberry.org; reservations are needed by noon Friday for the Wednesday dinner.

Beyond January…

February Luncheon

Susan Levy, “The Lakeside Classics: 109 Years of Historical Gems”

Friday, February 10, Union League Club

Started in 1903 by R.R. Donnelley & Sons President, Thomas E. Donnelley as a holiday gift book for employees and associates, the Lakeside Classics showed the world that by using the best technology, special craftsmanship and engaging content: machine-made books can more than hold their own in a bibliophile's world. As Executive Editor of the Classics for the past 17 years, Caxtonian Susan Levy is a storehouse of fascinating information and anecdotes about America's longest-running book series. Come and hear: about the challenges of producing a most worthy book each year; how they effect their own rule of "A Change Every 25 years"; what about computer impact on a series once dubbed, "A Best Kept Secret" and, really, how a simple, dignified, well-designed fit-in-the-palm of your hand book series, and, one never sold by the Company, can today command an appraisal price of $15,000 per set?

February Dinner

Suzanne Karr Schmidt, “Using Renaissance Books and Prints”

Wednesday, February 15, Cliff Dwellers Club

Historians of the book have long known the importance of signs of use and readership; what happens when art historians 'discover' this approach? From the sublime to the ridiculous, this talk will give a glimpse into the new research possibilities inherent in interactive printed matter, books and beyond.

Suzanne Karr Schmidt is the Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow in Prints and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago. She recently curated an exhibition there on the many uses of early print and printed images, "Altered and Adorned: Using Renaissance Prints in Daily Life," and worked extensively on the upcoming Harvard and Block Museum of Art exhibition, Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe. Both shows include a record number of books and boast stunning and scholarly exhibition catalogues. She received her doctorate from Yale University in 2006 for a dissertation on early modern paper engineering, collects early ephemera, and has spent as much time as possible at Rare Book School.

March Luncheon

On March 9, we will meet at the Union League Club. Speaker to be announced.

March Dinner

We will meet Wednesday, March 21, at the Cliff Dwellers. Isaac Gewirtz, Curator of the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library, will speakon “Jack Kerouac / The Beats.”