Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Manuscripts
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
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Rare Books
Martha Compton, a poor but attractive young woman, marries Mr. Barnaby, the surgeon and apothecary of Silverton. He is older, and soon Mrs Barnaby is a widow, independently wealthy. In youth she dresses extravagantly, even in mourning. As she enters middle age, she determines to find another husband. Two misadventures land her in debtor's prison, from which she is rescued. At last she marries Mr. O'Donagough, but is again widowed, and finally finds Major Allen, who matches her in duplicity. Going foreward, she opined, "The tender passion had ever been secondary in her heart to a passion for wealth and finery." She is determined to take good care of herself and make a good bargain in remarriage.
401153
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Manuscripts
The collection consists of official copies of plays submitted for licensing between 1737 and 1824. Most of copies were written by professional copyists. Approximately 95 of the plays submitted were printed texts, either whole or partial. These have been cataloged individually and may be searched in the online catalog.
LA 869
Visual Materials
Image of a young woman in a yellow Gibson Girl dress and floral hat standing with a parasol; the poster advertises the farcical comedy "The Tarrytown Widow" written by Charles T. Dazey and under the direction of D. W. Truss.
priJLC_ENT_000351
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Rare Books
The English village of Stoke Druid in Somerset has been plagued by a series of vicious anonymous letters written by a poison-pen who becomes known as the "Mocking Widow", after a forty-foot high rocky feature on the outskirts of the village. A middle-aged spinster who has been tormented by the letters' suggestions of sexual immorality commits suicide. Sir Henry Merrivale is offered an incredibly rare volume of memoirs by the village bookseller if he exposes the poison-pen, and accepts. During the investigation, a young woman is frightened nearly to death by the Widow's threats to visit her in her bedroom—she sees the Widow in her bedroom at the time and place previously announced, in circumstances that seem impossible for anyone to have been there. Then a village blackmailer who may have been the Widow's assistant is murdered, and Sir Henry brings the series of crimes home to their perpetrator.
660795
Manuscripts
No Application ; signed by John Ebers, The King's Theatre (opera house), manuscript copy with cast. An opera in Italian adapted from the play by William Shakespeare.
mssLA 2294
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Rare Books
An old woman falls in love with a man who could be her grandson. She is Sarah Durham, 65, a widow working in the theater in England and she develops a passion for a young actor. A look at love in the golden age by the author of The Golden Notebook.
633851