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Mapping Fiction
Exhibitions
1 of 13
Octavia E. Butler, Map of Acorn from notes for Parable of the Talents, ca. 1994. (Detail) Manuscript on binder paper, 8 1/2 x 11 in. © Octavia E. Butler. Reprinted by permission of Writers House, LCC acting as agent for the estate. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Map of Treasure Island. From Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, 1883. Printed book. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Dante Alighieri. Map of Hell from Dante con lespositione di Christofo Landino et di Alessandro vellvetello sopra la sua Comedia dell’ Inferno, del Purgatorio, & del Paradiso, 1564. Printed book. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Front cover. James Joyce, Ulysses, 1922. Printed book. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Map of journey to the center of the earth. From Ludvig Holberg, Nicolai Klimii iter svbterranevm, 1741. Printed book. © The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Map from front endpapers to The Odyssey of Homer (translated by T. E. Shaw (Col. T. E. Lawrence), 1935. Printed book. © Oxford University Press, Inc. Reproduced with permission of the Licensor through PSLclear. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
David Lilburn. “The Quays” from In medias res, 2006. Intaglio print on paper, 31 x 46 in. © David Lilburn, 2021. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Loren Latker, “Shamus Town” The Raymond Chandler Mystery Map of Los Angeles, the Wonder City of America, 2014. Map, 39 3/4 x 26 1/2 in. © Loren Latker, 2021. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Anne Brigman, Jack and Charmian London Looking at a Map, 1907. Photograph, 4 5/6 x 3 9/16 in. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
McLoughlin Bros. Round the World with Nellie Bly, 1890. Game board, 16 1/8 x 15 3/4 in. Courtesy of Jay T. Last. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Western Litho. Co. (printer), Los Angeles, Tarzana Hills Brand, ca. 1940. Lithographed orange crate label, 9 13/16 x 10 13/16 in. Jay T. Last Collection. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
D.W. Kellogg & Co. (printer), Hartford, The Fortified Country of a Man’s Heart, 1833-1842, lithographed map with hand coloring, 12 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches. © Nancy and Henry Rosin Collection. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
D.W. Kellogg & Co. (printer), Hartford, The Open Country of a Woman’s Heart, 1833-1842, lithographed map with hand coloring, 11 5/8 x 10 inches. © Nancy and Henry Rosin Collection. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Past eventSat., Jan. 15, 2022, 12 a.m.–Mon., May 30, 2022, 11:59 p.m.
Library, West Hall
Jan. 15–May 22, 2022 | Coinciding with the centennial of the publication of James Joyce's modernist novel, Ulysses, the exhibition "Mapping Fiction" explores the construction of fictional worlds through maps and novels.
“Mapping Fiction” is an exhibition focused on the ways authors and mapmakers have built compelling fictional worlds. On view in the Library’s West Hall, the exhibition is timed to coincide with the centennial of the publication of James Joyce’s groundbreaking 1922 modernist novel, Ulysses.
Drawn entirely from The Huntington’s collections, “Mapping Fiction” includes a first edition of Joyce’s novel and a typescript draft of one of its chapters, cartographically inspired intaglio prints of Dublin as described in the book, other mappings of the novel and the famous texts to which it alludes, and materials related to the annual celebration of Bloomsday in Dublin on June 16—the single day in 1904 during which the novel takes place.
About 70 items will be on view, focused on novels and maps from the 16th through the 20th century—largely early editions of books that include elaborate maps of imaginary worlds. Among the highlights are Lewis Carroll’s 1876 edition of The Hunting of the Snark, Robert Louis Stevenson’s maps from Treasure Island and Kidnapped, J. R. R. Tolkien’s map from the trilogy The Lord of the Rings, and science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler’s hand-drawn maps from notes for Parable of the Talents (1998) and her unpublished novel Parable of the Trickster. In addition to Butler’s archives, the show draws on The Huntington’s archival collections of Jack and Charmian London, Christopher Isherwood, and others, as well as the institution’s rich print holdings in travel narratives, English literature, and the history of science.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the publication of Joyce’s Ulysses, one of the most influential novels of the 20th century, “Mapping Fiction” asks: How might we better understand how novels and maps work by thinking about how they work together?
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