Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
Miracle in wood : created by nature - engineered in wood : the story of plywood : America's busiest building material
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Rare Books
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Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
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Rare Books
Campbell's origins go back to 1869, when Joseph Campbell and Abraham Anderson created a business in preserved foods. Jams, jellies, fruits, and vegetables in cans were the staples of the company until 1897, when Dr. John T. Dorrance, a nephew of one of the company's executives then working for $7.50 a week, invented condensed soup. Trained as a chemist, Dorrance had also studied cooking with gourmet chefs in Europe and his combined skills proved the key to success. Within twenty years he not only owned the company, but also demonstrated a marketing genius that nearly eclipsed his other talents; selling soup at ten cents a can he was taking in some fifteen million dollars a year by 1915. Douglas Collins narrates the history with gusto, weaving into the company's development interesting facts about the origins of soup itself and about how America's working women (who also remained homemakers) came to rely on convenience foods. Here, too, are insights into the skillful advertising and marketing decisions that have made Campbell Soup Company a model of successful business practice: the adoption of the red and white label (1898), the creation of the Campbell Kids (1904) - who remain fixtures of the company's visual presentation - and the diversification into other products: Pepperidge Farm baked goods, Prego spaghetti sauces, Vlasic pickles, Godiva chocolates and more. By 1962, the Campbell soup can was such an icon of American life that Pop artist Andy Warhol memorialized it in not one but several dozen works of art. And, Collins tells us, Warhol did so at least partly because he had grown up on Campbell's Tomato Soup, which remained a favorite of his. In addition to a special portfolio of Warhol artworks are historical images from the Campbell archives, photographs made for Fortune magazine in 1935 and 1955 by the great photojournalists Margaret Bourke-White and Dan Weiner, and a gallery of newspaper and magazine advertisements, posters, and related products - including two generations of Campbell kid dolls.
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Manuscripts
This collection consists of two series: the Grace Nicholson papers (2,926 items) and addenda (1,444 items). The papers consist primarily of correspondence, while the addenda is primarily notes. Both relate to Grace Nicholson and her work in the fields of Native American and Asian art. There are many letters from Native Americans to Nicholson and extensive diaries and notes that Nicholson kept on her buying trips through Native American territory, especially of the Karok, Klamath, and Pomo Indians. Subject matter includes Native American legends, folklore, vocabulary, tribal festivals, basket making, business in art trade, and living conditions. There is also a considerable amount of correspondence from China, Japan, and Korea between Nicholson and her buyers. Among the subjects covered are Chinese art and architecture, Japanese art, Korean art, Javanese textiles, Siamese art, Philippine art, life and social conditions in Asia, and the business of trading Asian art. Being a well-known dealer in Native American and Asian art, Nicholson was in contact with many artists, such as Frederick Arthur Bridgman, W. Herbert Dunton, Sadakichi Hartmann, Elizabeth Conrad Hickox, Louise Merrill Hickox, Grace Carpenter Hudson, George Wharton James, Lilian Miller, Hovsep T. Pushman, Joseph Henry Sharp, and Millard Sheets. Nicholson also purchased materials for institutions such as the Field Museum of Natural History, the Honolulu Academy of Arts, the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art, the Pasadena Art Museum, and the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, California. Her intimate relationships with Native Americans give particular insight into their lives and culture. Historians and academics sought her out, including Alfred Lewis Kroeber, Charles Fletcher Lummis, and Clinton Hart Merriam. Nicholson also received letters from political figures such as Frederick Webb Hodge, Herbert Hoover, Hiram Johnson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
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Rare Books
"'Unexpected Stories' is, by any measure, an unexpected fit. This slender but resonant volume contains two stories--recently unearthed and never before in print--by one of the most significant figures in modern science fiction: Octavia E. Butler. 'A Necessary Being' takes us into the heart of an alien culture with a rigid hierarchical system based on caste and skin coloration. With the arrival of visitors from a distant mountain tribe, the society known as the Rohkohn finds itself faced with the sudden prospect of profound social change. In the second story, 'Childfinder,' the title character is a woman who uses her psychic abilities to track down children with similar nascent abilities--and protect them from the abuses of a predatory society. These may be early stories, but they are the clear reflections of a powerful and original talent, and their belated publication is a major literary event. As novelist Nisi Shawl notes in her eloquent introduction, we may live in a fundamentally unfair world, but 'sweet surprises' occasionally come our way. 'Unexpected Stories' is one of those surprises. It is a book that Butler's many admirers have been waiting for, whether they knew it or not. The Subterranean Press edition of 'Unexpected Stories' will be its first print edition, with a newly-commissioned introduction by Nisi Shawl, and an afterword by Butler's longtime agent and literary executor, Merrilee Heifetz"--From dust jacket.
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"Monique Wentzel is a compelling new voice in contemporary fiction and the recipient of a 2012-14 Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University. She takes as her subject the people and places of California, revealing a tender, sometimes dark vision of the relationships between them. Set in mostly rural areas in Northern California, along the California-Arizona border, and in the suburbs around the San Francisco Bay, Wentzel's narratives describe the beauty of this vast landscape as well as the singular, vivid ordinariness of the many lives unfolding within it...Although told in distinct voices and structured around closely-observed details that allow each story to stand on its own, a sense of something primal runs through the book, and Wentzel's unflinching prose gives deep cohesion to the whole. The moments gathered in these thoughtfully curated stories may be ephemeral, but the writing resonates and endures. San Francisco artist Jessica Dunne's subtle drawings explore and reflect on the stories' themes. More than illustrations, they offer a visual counterpoint to the varied facets of Wentzel's narratives." -- Publisher's page.
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Visual Materials
One pamphlet entitled Kindergarten Work in the Home, by Edith Marion Cleaver, published by Pepsin Syrup Co., Monticello, Illinois, ca. 1920. This pamphlet is 16 numbered pages in length, and is a manufacturer's advertisement for Dr. Caldwell's Syrup Pepsin. The front cover is illustrated with a color image of two seated girls, each engaged in artistic play. The back cover is a color image of a number of crafts that can be made as outlined in the booklet. Throughout the book, arts and crafts activities are interspersed with advertisements and recommended uses for the laxative syrup. All illustrations within the book are in black and white. Some of the activities included are: How to Make Doll Houses, Cutting and Pasting, Doll Furniture, and Holiday Articles. The inside front and back covers contain two images of Dr. Caldwell and suggestions for holiday crafts, respectively. "Freda Pratt" is written in ms. at the top of the front cover. "25 [cents symbol]" is written in ms. in the upper right-hand corner of the front cover.
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Rare Books
A collection of hilarious and deeply informed writings about drink from one of the all-time authorities. Kingsley Amis was one of the great masters of comic prose, and no subject was dearer to him than the art and practice of imbibing. This new volume brings together the best of his three out-of-print works on the subject. Along with a series of well-tested recipes (including a cocktail called the Lucky Jim) the book includes Amis's musings on The Hangover, The Boozing Man's Diet, What to Drink with What, and (presumably as a matter of speculation) How Not to Get Drunk-all leavened with quizzes on the making and drinking of alcohol all over the world. Mixing practical know-how and hilarious opinionation, this is a cocktail of wry humor and distilled knowledge, served by one of our great gimlet wits.--From publisher description.
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