Not Tantamount To Rarity: Fifty Years of Collecting

The department has holdings of printed and manuscript collections supporting research in the history of printing, the graphic arts, bibliography, the book trade, fictitious imprints (1600 - 1900), and emblem books from the 16th through the 19th centuries. While every printed item in the collections can be considered an artifact of some aspect of printing history, below are highlights of active collecting areas.

Ahmanson-Murphy Aldine Collection

Ahmanson-Murphy Collection of Early Italian Printing (1465 - 1600)

The collection of the publications of Aldo Manuzio, his family, and imitators was begun in 1961 during the tenure of Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy. It has become the foremost Aldine collection in North America. The UCLA collection contains more than 750 items listed in A.A. Renouard's Annales de l'imprimerie des Alde (Paris: Jules Renouard, 1834). The department has nearly 80 percent of the books printed by the elder Aldo.
The Ahmanson-Murphy Collection of Early Italian Printing was established to expand research holdings printed during the period of the Aldine collection. More than 300 printers are represented. Items from the Franklin D. Murphy Early Italian Printing collection are on display under Hebraica & Judaica.
Franklin D. Murphy was interviewed by the UCLA Oral History Program. Related interviews from University Librarians and others: Robert Vosper, Wilbur Smith.

[Planudean] Greek Anthology. Florilegium diversorum epigrammatum in septem libros... . [Venetiis, 1503.] Edited by Aldo Manuzio; based on the Florence editio princeps of 1494 with a few additions. Aldine device on title page and verso of final leaf. From the estate of Templeton Crocker. Z 233 A4A62

Poems from the Greek Anthology have been popular for fine printing since its beginning. This work, though not an incunable, is the first printing by Aldo of poems from this work. The binding is a Venetian binding in the style known as alla greca, ca. 1515 - 1535. The collection of incunables (books printed before 1501), primarily by the printer Aldus Manutius and his heirs, began with a purchase of a collection whose sale was brought to the attention of Wilbur Smith in 1961, that of San Francisco collector Templeton Crocker. 45 books were purchased through funding obtained by then Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy. He continued to foster these collections through his lifetime, and they are now endowed through the Ahmanson Foundation.

Modern Fine Printing & Graphic Arts
The department has coordinated its collections of modern fine presses, particularly those of California printers, with the Clark Library. Special Collections is a repository of publications of the Black Sparrow Press (California) and the Whittington Press (England). The Department maintains a collection of graphic arts ephemera (mostly prospectuses) begun by Jake Zeitlin.

E. M. (Edward Morgan) Forster, 1879 - 1970. Pharos and Pharillon. Richmond, Surrey: Printed and published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, Hogarth House, Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey, 1923. Special Collections SRLF

Thus reads the full printing statement of the 20th century press with perhaps the most romantic literary associations: the finest writers like E. M. Forster published by Leonard Woolf and his famous wife from a country setting of artists and crafts persons.

W. W. (William Wilcox) Robinson, 1891 - . The Malibu: Rancho Topanga Malibu Sequit, An Historical Approach by W. W. Robinson. Personal Considerations, essays by Lawrence Clark Powell. Illus. by Irene Robinson. Los Angeles: Dawson's Book Shop, 1958. 320 copies printed at the Plantin Press, Los Angeles. Special Collections has no.9. With autographs of printers, illustrator, and authors.

This edition was printed by Saul Marks, often considered Los Angeles's finest printer. A second edition was printed in 1970 by Ward Ritchie, another great area printer and publisher, and a great friend of Powell.
Robinson published dozens of works of local history but spoke of this work as his finest stylistic achievement, a work which begins: "The Malibu is a broad, twenty-two mile long strip of ocean-fronting land that lies midway between Santa Monica and Ventura in Southern California. Entirely within Los Angeles County, it is partly marine terrace, partly beach, partly canyon, partly rising mountain."
Ward Ritchie was interviewed by the UCLA Oral History Program.

Tennessee Williams, 1911 - 1983. It Happened the Day the Sun Rose. Los Angeles: Sylvester and Orphanos, 1981. First published by Stathis Orphanos & Ralph Sylvester in a limited edition of 330 copies. Three hundred are numbered, twenty-six lettered, and four bear the printed name of a recipient. The text is set in Janson types, the paper is Arches Mouldmade. All copies are signed by the author. Printed by Patrick Reagh. Copy 65. Title page woodcut by Achilles Droungas. Title page designed by Vance Gerry.
This publication is a local one, done with local printing talent and the Greek artist Achilleas (Achilles) Droungas. The work is still not included in Williams's Collected Stories. Several colophon pages were returned from Williams to the publishers with stains from spilled wine. Williams biographer Donald Spoto has noted, in The Kindness of Strangers, that "the odd crew [Williams] met that summer [1953, traveling Europe and Tangier with Paul Bowles] inspired the weird assortment" in this story.

Williams's signature as it appears on the book's colophon

[Printing ephemera pertaining to Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin]. In: Zeitlin, Jake, 1902 - . Graphic arts ephemera collection, ca. 1900 - . Items to be added

The prospectuses collected by poet and bookseller Jake Zeitlin are in themselves printing art and give a tangible history of changing cultural imagery through graphic design. The collection is now added to by the Dept.
Jake Zeitlin was interviewed by the UCLA Oral History Program.

History of Philosophy
References History of Printing
References

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