Wyoming Arts Council

Meet bookfest presenter Wayne Cornell

Uncategorized | September 4, 2008

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Caxton has been owned and operated by the Gipson family since they established an agricultural weekly newspaper in Caldwell, Idaho, in 1895. Caxton Printers was incorporated in 1907. Caxton Press, the publishing arm of the company, has been producing books about the West and its history since 1925. Caxton Press is the oldest publisher west of the Missouri River. It was established by James Herrick Gipson because he felt Eastern book publishers were ignoring writers in the Western U.S. Today Caxton is a multi-faceted company with divisions for commercial printing, the state textbook depository, school and office supplies and Caxton Press.

Caxton Press Editor Wayne Cornell is a native of southwest Idaho, where his grandfather and his parents operated weekly newspapers. He began his journalism career at the family paper in Kuna, Idaho. In 1967, he was named sports editor at the Idaho Free Press, a daily newspaper in Nampa, Idaho. He spent three years as the editor of a week newspaper in the late 1970s before returning to the Nampa newspaper as feature writer and columnist and later, city editor.In 1991, Wayne was named managing editor of the Idaho Press-Tribune in Nampa. He directed the Press-Tribune when it was the fastest growing daily newspaper in the Pacific Northwest. He won awards for his column, which he continued to write, and for best editorials in the Utah, Idaho, Spokane region of the Associated Press.

In 1996 Wayne left the Press-Tribune to become editor at Caxton Press in Caldwell, fulfilling a life-long dream. During the past 12 years he has worked on more than 100 Caxton titles, including manuscript selection, editing, layout and publicity. He is an active member of Western Writers of America. At the 2006 convention at Cody, Caxton Press received the first ever Lariat Award for “Outstanding support of WWA and its members.”

Wayne also continues to write his column, “Not important. . .but possibly of interest,” for a local weekly newspaper. He and his wife Sara have three grown daughters and two granddaughters. His hobbies include traveling, photography and camera collecting. His photos and writing can be found on his web site.

At the Equality State Book Festival, Cornell will be appearing on the panel, “Publishing from the Ground Up” scheduled on Saturday, Sept. 20 at 1 p.m. at the Nicolaysen Art Museum

FMI: http://www.swcornell.com

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