The Aldus Society is central Ohio’s connection for book lovers, hosting free literary events and author talks each month.
The organization is open to readers, book collectors, writers, and anyone who loves the printed word. Events are free and open to the public.
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Aldus Society Literary Talks
Monthly lectures are held on the second Thursday of the month from September through November and from January through May. Doors open at 7 pm; presentations start at 7:30 pm. Free parking. Programs are free and open to the public.
September 10: Jillian Hess discusses the pleasures and paradoxes of taking notes in the digital age. A professor of English at CUNY and viral blogger, Hess has spent decades studying how literary giants gathered information and made sense of the world around them. She is the author of How Romantics and Victorians Organized Information: Commonplace Books, Scrapbooks, and Albums (Oxford University Press, 2022).
October 8: Grant Sabatier recounts his astounding journey from humble salaryman, to entrepreneurial phenomenon, to best-selling author, to his ultimate goal — owner of our indie fave, Clintonville Books! Sabatier is the author of international bestsellers Financial Freedom (Penguin Random House, 2020) and Inner Entrepreneur (Penguin Random House, 2022).
November 12: Ashlyn Oprescu discusses her work conserving the fragile pages of rare Medieval manuscripts, where she uses her highly technical expertise to balance the competing demands of preserving these priceless treasures while also making them available to students, researchers and the public. Oprescu is a Book and Paper Senior Conservator at Ohio State’s University Libraries.
January 14: Aldus Collects! Our annual audience favorite. The magnificent George Bauman hosts book collectors from amongst the Aldus membership.
February 11: Elizabeth Bond discusses the startling parallels between “participatory knowledge” shared in newspapers during the tumultuous years of Revolutionary France and the never-ending disputation on social media during our own age of polarization. Bond is an associate professor of history at Ohio State and the author of The Writing Public: Participatory Knowledge Production in Enlightenment and Revolutionary France (Cornell University Press, 2021).
March 11: Jennifer Weinbrecht is the owner of Geauga County’s not-so-hidden treasure, Jane Austen Books. JAB was founded in 1986 and enjoys a national reputation that shows no sign of fading. Weinbrecht operates the store with daughters Beth Dean and Amy Patterson. Their presence is felt far beyond Ohio by serving as a national resource for Austen material and through their participation in the Jane Austen Society of North America.
April 8: Gary Lovely, a local eminence in the independent bookstore scene (Prologue Books, Two Dollar Radio Headquarters, Abraham Associates). Columbus enjoys an astonishing richness of independent booksellers (check out our map!) and nobody knows the scene better than Gary. Gary is a board member of the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association and has written about books for the New York Times, Literary Hub, Buzzfeed Books, and Columbus Monthly. Gary’s talk will focus on working with literature in translation.
May 13: Walt Hunter closes the season on a high note by discussing his work as poetry and fiction editor for The Atlantic. The Atlantic was founded in the dark days of pre-Civil War America with a mission to attend the unfinished project of the nation, and from the beginning it featured poetry of “rousing optimism, clear-eyed realism, and moving lyricism.” Walt Hunter is a professor of twentieth and twenty-first century literature at Case Western Reserve University. He is the editor of The Singing Word: 168 Years of Poetry from The Atlantic (Atlantic Editions, 2025).
See upcoming events on the website or on reserve a spot on Eventbrite.
Thurber Center
91 Jefferson Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43215
(next to the Thurber House).
Aldus is an affiliate of the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies (FABS).
Upcoming book sales, book festivals, and other literary events
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