Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
The aristos : a self-portrait in ideas
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Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Image not available
Manuscripts
This collection contains the papers of Los Angeles author and gay activist Joseph Hansen and includes drafts of published and unpublished work; correspondence; manuscripts of works by some of Hansen's friends, family, and students; professional papers primarily related to publishing; and personal and family papers. The bulk of the material dates from the 1940s through the early 2000s. The collection includes works by Joseph Hansen, which consists of chiefly typescript drafts for most of Hansen's novels (including those published under the pseudonyms Rose Brock and James Colton), poetry, essays and articles, and television and play scripts. While there are some handwritten edits and corrections among the drafts and proofs, the majority do not have annotations. There are also two boxes with copies of various publications, primarily literary magazines and newspapers, containing Hansen's published work. There are two boxes with various manuscripts of work by friends and family of Hansen including poems by FrancEyE, and drafts of novels: In Search of Truth by Chris Gugas and People Talking to Themselves by Armine D. Mackenzie. There is also a ledger and manuscript by Belle Race from the early 1900s, who presumably was a relative of Hansen's wife Jane Bancroft Hansen. The correspondence in the collection includes both personal and professional letters sent and received by Hansen. There is a sizable amount of correspondence between Hansen and his publishers and agents including Collier Associates, Countryman Press; Holt, Rinehart & Winston; Harper & Row; the John Johnson Agency; Joan Kahn; and Penguin Books. In addition, there are also five folders of rejection letters sent to Hansen. Within Hansen's personal correspondence, notable correspondents include: British author Beryl Bainbridge, who befriended Hansen in the 1970s while Hansen was living in London; English composer and musician Richard Rodney Bennett; the publisher Brandon House, who put out Hansen's Colton books; gay filmmaker Arch Brown, who collaborated with Hansen on a playscript of Hansen's novel Backtrack, which was not produced; American crime fiction writer Dorothy Salisbury Davis, with whom Hansen corresponded regularly; poet, and girlfriend of Charles Bukowski, FrancEyE (aka Frances Dean Smith); American author Philip Gambone who published a profile of Hansen in Something Inside: Conversations with Gay Fiction Writers; poet and literary critic Diana Gioia; gay activist William "Billy" Glover, who worked at One magazine and after helped form the Homosexual Information Center in 1968; poet and literary critic William Harry Harding; gay activist Ross Ingersoll; poet Bill Mohr; critic Terry Teachout, who reviewed some of Hansen's novels; and crime writer Charles Ray Willeford. There are also insignificant pieces of correspondence from well-known individuals: James Blish, James Broughton, Sue Grafton, Tony Hillerman, George Plimpton, Julian Symons, and Andrew Vachss. Professional and personal materials include a variety of materials related to many different parts of Hansen's life, including business, publishing, and financial documents; miscellaneous ephemera, research materials; family papers, with writings and papers by Jane Bancroft Hansen as well as the Hansen's only child Daniel Hansen; press features on Hansen and reviews of his publications; materials related to Hansen's KFI radio program "Stranger from the Sea"; documents related to Hansen's teaching, chiefly at the UCLA extension school; miscellaneous materials related to Hansen's involvement with the gay community such as the Gay Community Services Center and the homosexual Information Center; and some materials related to his work on a 1970 issue of the literary magazine Beyond Baroque. The collection contains one box of photographs with images of Hansen throughout his life, as well as family members including Jane Bancroft Hansen and Daniel Hansen, and some friends and residences. The collection also contains approximately 70 drawings on paper presumably by Jane Hansen from the 1960s, of which many may have been created as part of art class.
mssHansen
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Visual Materials
This collection contains the papers of naval architect, artist, and interior designer Jack Heaney primarily related to projects Heaney worked on in the mid 20th century at the New York City marine design and naval architectural firm of George G. Sharp Inc., and later at Jack Heaney and Associates. The bulk of the collection dates from the late 1930s to the 1960s and includes both professional and project records primarily reflecting Heaney's design work for cargo-passenger vessels, and some personal documents. The professional and project records in the collection includes design renderings and drawings of ship exteriors, interiors, furniture, and fixtures; photographs primarily of ship interiors; miscellaneous ephemera, often with graphic components by Heaney; publications and clippings profiling Heaney's work; and some miscellaneous correspondence. The largest section relates to the first nuclear cargo ship, the NS Savannah. Other ships and ship lines represented include the Robin Line, Delta Line, American President Lines, Great Lakes Ore Carriers, SS Aquarama, Gulf and South American Steamship, and the Farrell Lines. While most of the collection concerns Heaney's work, the Staten Island Ferries series also includes correspondence related to JoAnne Heaney's interior design work on the project in the late 1970s. The materials also include twelve of the first issues of Harmony in G. Sharp, the George G. Sharp firm's in-house magazine dating from the mid 1940s. The personal papers include three shipbuilding books and a notebook used by Heaney as a student; six pieces of student artwork dating from 1924 to 1926; and some additional postcards and pieces of ephemera.
archHeaney
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Rare Books
Macdonald fans and others interested in detective fiction will find this worthwhile browsing. In a number of the essays Macdonald, a.k.a. Kenneth Millar, sketches in his basic life history: his Scots-Canadian newspapering ancestors; meeting his wife Margaret; and, above all, his absent, loved/hated father--the source of the Oedipal trauma that led to his "breakthrough" novel, The Galton Case. Three essays are devoted to one of Macdonald's lifelong passions, ecologic conservation. The rest of the book is devoted to writers and writing. The topics addressed include: the history of the American crime novel starting with Poe, the function crime fiction fulfills to society, the autobiographical elements in his Lew Archer character, an analysis of Hammett's Sam Spade as he appears in the Maltese Falcon and the critical importance of narrative unity in crime novels. He defends the literary place of the detective novel, declaring his longtime passion for the Gothic tradition. He pays homage to Hammett, Chandler, Greene, Kenneth Fearing, and others.
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