A Brief History of The Colophon Club

The Colophon Club was founded in June 5, 1979 in Berkeley, California.

A founding dinner was held on Tuesday July 10, 1979 at Lehr’s Greenhouse Restaurant with the letterpress printed invitation to: “Please invite a prospective member as your guest.”

The stated purpose of the Club at the time of its founding and today is to be "[a] social club for bibliophiles. To share, and encourage knowledge and enthusiasm for books and the book arts." 

The Colophon Club was founded as a bohemian alternative to the Roxburghe Club, an exclusive club which did not include women as members. The Roxburghe Club's membership was on book collecting and selling rather than on the work of the craftspeople within larger field of book arts, such as bookbinders, book designers and publishers,  paper conservationists, hand paper makers, etc.  In other words, the Club included the people you would find written in the colophon at the back of a book. The Club adopted the moniker of "The fun club for bibliophiles."

See below for a small selection of images from historical documents from the founding of the Club. 

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As with most social clubs, The Colophon Club has changed over the years as its members have welcomed in new members of the book arts community. In 2020, during the COVID Pandemic, the leaders of the Colophon Club, John DeMerritt, Tom Ingalls, Amelia Grounds, Dina Pollack, and Stephen Woodall hosted Zoom meetings of the Club online for the first time. During this time, membership and involvement grew and expanded to members across the country.  Book artists were asked to talk about their book projects as well as show off their studio setup to the membership. It provided and maintained a sense of community during a socially isolating time. 

For many years, the Club hosted a dinner and talk once a month at the Berkeley City Club. For many reasons, including financial challenges for members who were students or on fixed incomes,  the meetings have evolved over the years to a combination of studio visits where book artist's or organizations related to the book arts host meetings and sit-down dinners at a local Berkeley cafe on Vine Street with guest speakers. 

The Colophon Club fills a niche in the book community providing fellowship, learning, and collaboration among its members.  Our members include master printers and bookbinders who have been involved in the creation of some of the most beautiful and historically significant American fine press and artists' books in the past century. Members experienced in the field of book arts share their knowledge and collaborate with members coming into book arts for the first time, and welcome those who have newly moved into our local Bay Area community.  This sharing of knowledge and love of the book arts across all of the generations of our membership is the primary feature that the Club seeks to maintain and promote with its existence.