The Baxter Society

Karolyne Garner will speak at the April meeting of the Baxter Society. This will be held on Zoom on Wednesday, April 9, at 6:00 ET.

A book here and a book there. Isn’t that how most collections begin? Mine began with Jane Austen and evolved into books on etiquette, something thickly woven into Austen’s stories. My first book was a journal where I pasted in columns from Dear Abby and Miss Manners. Now, with guidance and help from my book-collecting husband, Bryan, my collection extends beyond what people traditionally consider etiquette—beyond the stuffy Victorian-era or good-manners tomes devoted to weddings and fine engagements.

Etiquette is about empathy and sympathy for others. That’s why Austen’s works are intriguing—etiquette ranges from societal measuring sticks to barbs spread by gossips. While the current arbiter elegantiarum, Miss Manners (aka Judith Martin), gently shows us how to be better versions of ourselves, many continually misunderstand the genre.

David has been a lighting engineer for fifty years, and has taught lighting engineering at at the University of Colorado at Boulder for the last thirty-five. He has been collecting antiquarian books dealing with optics, light, and vision for more than 30 years, and published a massive book on the bibliography of optics books—from 1475 to 1925—in 2022.

On Wednesday, February 5th, Bill Lippincottt will speak on “A Bangor publisher’s connection to Houghton Mifflin: George Godfrey and his library.” At Glickman Library, at 6:00 pm, and online via Zoom. Link to be emailed the morning of the meeting.

The ever-dependable Shakesduck encourages you not to miss the annual Baxter Show-and-Tell, to be held Wednesday, January 8, at 6:00 pm, on Zoom only. Each member will be allotted up to five minutes to share with the group a book or book-art work of their choosing. Bring a treasure or a folly, as you will.

No need to sign up: just show up. This is an informal talk about our books.

If you have any qualms about using Zoom, please send Reid a note (use the contact page of this website) and he will try to resolve any complications.

(note early hour)

Reid Byers, the President of the Baxter Society and convener of the New England group of the Grolier Club, is the author of The Private Library, listed among the best non-fiction books of 2021 by the Washington Post. At our November meeting, he will speak on his upcoming book and exhibition at the Grolier Club, Imaginary Books: Lost, Unfinished, and Fictive Works Found Only in Other Books. The meeting will be held at 6:00 pm on November 13, at Glickman Library in Portland and on Zoom.

The New York Times said:

This irresistible conceptual-art installation displays meticulously constructed simulacra of books that don’t exist — some because they’ve been lost, others because they never did exist. Look for “Love’s Labour’s Won,” Ernest Hemingway’s first novel, and the “Necronomicon.” (Dec. 5-Feb. 15, 2025; Grolier Club) – Will Heinrich, NY Times, Sept 6, 2024.

The Fall meeting schedule for the Baxter Society has been announced:

Sept 18: Joint meeting with the Kate Cheney Chappell Center for Book Arts, Stephanie Stigliano will speak on her work.

Oct 9: Anne Bromer will speak on “Miniature Books Deserve More Respect.”

Nov 13: Reid Byers will speak on his Grolier Club exhibition “Imaginary Books.”

Dec 11: Annual Holiday Party and Business Meeting (in person only)

Jan 8: Annual Show-and-Tell (online only)

Véronique Plesch, Professor of Art History at Colby College and chair of the Art Department, holds advanced degrees in Art History and Medieval French Literature from the University of Geneva, and from Princeton University, where she received her Ph.D. in Art History. She will speak on “The Many Paradoxes of Tom Phillips’s A Humument.”

The meeting will be held at Glickman Library at USM, and on Zoom, on May 15, at 5:00 pm.

PLEASE NOTE THE TIME AND DATE CHANGE.

A Humument: A Treated Victorian Novel is an altered book by British artist Tom Phillips. It is a piece of art created over W.H. Mallock’s 1892 novel A Human Document whose title results from the partial deletion of the original title: A Human document.

Since 2011 she has appeared as the rare book specialist on the History Channel’s show Pawn Stars. She speaks and writes widely on rare books and collecting; her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Forbes, Variety, The Paris Review, and more. She is the author of Printer’s Error: Irreverent Stories from Book History and of The Romance Novel in English. Her upcoming book is Jane Austen’s Bookshelf, chronicling her efforts to build a book collection of Austen’s favorite women writers (Simon & Schuster, 2025). She will speak Wednesday on “Next Generation Book Collecting: How Gen Z is Joining the Centuries-Long Tradition.”