Who was William Caxton?
William Caxton (c1422-91) began his working life as an apprentice to Robert Large, a textile merchant. Following Large’s death in 1441 he moved to Bruges where he established himself as a cloth merchant and diplomat on behalf of Edward IV. After spending a year in Cologne learning the art of printing, Caxton returned to Bruges where he set up a printing press and produced the first book to appear in English - a translation of Raoul le Fevre's Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye.
In the autumn of 1476, Caxton returned to England and set up his printing press in a shop by the chapterhouse of Westminster. This press produced the first dated book printed in England. Completed on 18 November 1477, the book was Earl Rivers' translation of The Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres.
Other notable books from Caxton's press include The Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer and Confessio Amantis by the poet John Gower. Caxton printed nearly 100 other works before his death in 1491, but fewer than 40 of his publications still exist. | 
