Caxton, William

Caxton, William (about 1422-91), printer, b. Kent, England.

Caxton was at first a cloth merchant. He spent much of his time in Flanders (Belgium) and Germany and he probably learned about printing in Cologne in 1471-2.

Two years later, he translated a poem from French into English and he helped to print this himself in Bruges in 1475.

This was the first book in English ever to be printed, its title being The Recuyell of the Histories of Troy.

Afterwards Caxton returned to England and set up a printing press near Westminster Abbey.

In 1477 he published The Dictes or Sayings of the Philosophers. This was the first book printed in England.

In all, Caxton printed about ninety books. The most famous of these were Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur (The Death of Arthur), and Aesop's Fables.

Today some of Caxton's books are worth over $40,000.