Fullerton’s Wednesday Book Club Turns 90 Years Old

We live in a rapidly changing world where new ideas, trends, and inven- tions are born at a dizzying pace. So it is lovely and comforting that a club of women readers founded in 1934 is still going strong, marking nine decades of reporting on their favorite books.

For 90 years, members of the Fullerton Wednesday Book Club (WBC) have read, learned, and celebrated the wonders of books. Purportedly the oldest, continuously operating book club in Orange County, and possibly throughout California and the country, the WBC was founded by Fullerton local Edith Bullis with the lofty goal of “striving for the enrichment of personality and mutual loaning of minds on the subjects of books, current topics, music, and art.” Membership—then and now—is limited to 24.

Bullis reasoned that members would be better served if they chose their books to review. In most other clubs, everyone reads and discusses the same book. The WBC was the only place where an individual member’s book choice was introduced, reported on, and appreciated by the rest of the group. If others in the group were so inclined, they too could read the book after hearing about it. But no pressure!

The meeting format has changed little since 1934. Eighteen times a year, members gather to hear two twenty-minute reports and four five-minute reviews (the times were recently shortened from thirty minutes to twenty and lengthened from five minutes to ten); there is one break for refreshments and member interaction. One member (the “historian”) chooses a particular meeting from past years and reports on some of the books that were reviewed. Considering that the club was born before World War II, society and culture—and the books that have reflected the enormous changes in our country and the world – would be fascinating to review. The club also holds three “social” events during the 18 weeks each year: a welcome-back luncheon, a holiday party, and a spring event.

Another important element has never varied: Wednesday Book Club members are voracious readers who appreciate a wide range of fiction and non-fiction books and love to share them. The Wednesday Book Club is such a local treasure that all its 90 years of minutes (including all books read since the club’s inception) are housed in the Fullerton Public Library.

Wednesday Book Club, 1954 photo courtesy of Fullerton Public Library History Room

Let’s peek at just a few reported books over these 90 years.

One of the earliest books reported on was John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Another favorite was Margret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind. The 50s, an era of growth and optimism in Orange County, found the book club hearing about Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking.” Today’s reports cover the gamut of fiction and non-fiction with titles such as Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, The Boys in the Boat, Where the Crawdads Sing, and A Man Called Ove. Club members are exposed to 144 books each year!

A few quotes from one of the earliest members to a current member reflect that the benefits and value of WBC have not changed. Notes Lavinia Knight, at 93, one of WBC’s earliest and oldest members:

“As a child, I didn’t have access to libraries. There were none in the lower grades. Finally, we had one in the eighth grade and could borrow one book a week!” Clearly, her exposure to so many books through WBC was a treasure.

Notes current member Jan Flory: “Being part of the Wednesday Book Club has been a joy, (being able) to ‘play’ with women from different backgrounds, and who all love books. We get a curated description of six books every two weeks on subjects that we might never have thought of exploring…”

In honor of WBC’s historic 90th birthday, the Fullerton Library will run a special exhibit in February with photos and other historic memorabilia.