Club of Odd Volumes
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The Club of Odd Volumes is a society of bibliophiles founded on January 25, 1887 at Boston in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The club was founded by eighteen Boston bibliophiles in order to "promote literary and artistic tastes, the exhibition of books, and social relations among [its] members."
The club began primarily as a dinner club complimenting established social clubs like the Algonquin Club, Harvard Club, Somerset Club, and Union Club. In its earliest years the club was somewhat roving holding meetings and dinners in other clubs and at the Boston Athenæum. The club rented a sizable building on Beacon Hill's Mount Vernon Street before buying its own five story Federal Style townhouse across the street in 1920. The club has a substantial library of antiquarian books and an archive of letterpress printing.
Between its founding and 1900, the club expanded its membership and activities to include an active exhibition and publishing program as well as the maintenance of a library. Members in the Club of Odd Volumes are often associated with Boston's publishing business, universities, and includes printers and typophiles. The club continues to offer exhibitions on the printing arts, typography, and antiquarian books.
The club has hosted authors, book designers, artists, politicians, and printers. Notable members and guests include Winston Churchill, Theodore L. de Vinne, William Addison Dwiggins, Frederic Goudy, Rockwell Kent, Bruce Rogers, Rudolf Ruzicka, and Daniel Berkeley Updike.