by:
Burlingham, Cynthia (Editor)
Whiteman, Bruce (Editor)

Publisher:
J. Paul Getty Trust Publications
Published:March 1, 2002
ISBN:0892366591
Format:Hardcover
Pages:448

Description: From Library Journal
This is a catalog of an exhibition held at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles from October 2001 to January 2002. As one of the editors states in the Introduction, The World from Here provides "convincing evidence...that Los Angeles is one of the great book cities of the world." Represented here are 391 books, manuscripts, and other objects from the special collections of 32 Los Angeles County libraries. Sixty-eight individuals contributed the entries, many of which are a full page in length. The items are grouped into seven sections, the first of which focuses on Los Angeles and California. The local items include, for example, the first book printed in California, a document establishing Los Angeles as a city, examples of fine printing in California, and California maps, photographs, and posters. The other six sections present printed books, manuscripts, and items typical of major special collections anywhere: a Greek grammar published by Aldus Manutius, a Caxton Chaucer, a Kelmscott Press book printed on velum, Audubon's Birds of America, as well as a broad range of less famous materials. The catalog also contains valuable essays by Anthony Grafton on libraries and scholarship since the ancient Greeks, by Nicolas Barker on the history of book collecting in southern California, and by Kenneth A. Breisch on library buildings in Los Angeles in the 20th century. The World from Here belongs in large collections on books and libraries and on California. [For another rich library collection, see Mary Augusta Thomas's Odyssey in Print: Adventures in the Smithsonian Libraries, Professional Media, LJ 3/15/02. Ed.] Thomas F. O'Connor, Manhattan Coll. Libs., Bronx, N.
- Thomas F. O'Connor, Manhattan Coll. Libs., Bronx, NY
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description:
Essays by Nicholas Barker, Kenneth Breisch, Anthony Grafton Few people are aware of Los Angeles' vast collective resource of rare books, manuscripts, and related objects, housed in Los Angeles-area libraries. Featuring more than three hundred selections from area collections, The World from Here explores this treasure trove of rare books and ephemera. Included are materials ranging from a 1482 atlas of the known world to fiction classics, early botanical and scientific texts, letters, posters, and artists' books. Selections were culled from nearly forty institutions, including the Huntington Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles Public Library and the libraries at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California. Essays on libraries in the American West, the history of book collecting in Los Angeles, and library buildings in Los Angeles during the twentieth century make The World from Here an engaging study of this impressive, yet little-known, cultural resource. It catalogues an exhibit at the UCLA Hammer Museum until January 13, 2002.