2020 Events

Dominic has been a self-employed bookbinder since 1990. Since that time he has bound, rebound and restored many fabulous books. He has also collected interesting and unusual bindings, seen many more, and had adventures teaching in four continents. In this light-hearted talk he will share some of his favourite moments from his encounters with the world of bookbinding and its related disciplines.

An illustrated talk by Dominic Riley, bookbinder and artist

> This event is co-presented by the American Printing History Association Northern California

The history of printing in California, though still relatively young, is yet venerable, spotty, and incomplete. In this talk, Peter Koch surveys roughly a century of printing in the Golden State that emphasises the book as a work of art, from the Arts and Crafts movement to more contemporary movements. From this fragmented history, Koch will pick up on threads that nevertheless tie seemingly disparate printerly activity into a discernible–if polysemic–tradition.

An illustrated talk by Peter Koch, printer

> This event is co-sponsored and hosted by the Pasadena Public Library

Charmian Kittredge London (1871–1955) was the epitome of a modern woman. Free-spirited and adventurous, she defied modern expectations of femininity. Today she is best known as the wife of the famous American author Jack London, yet she was a literary trailblazer in her own right. This biography is the first book to tell the complete story of Charmian’s life—freed from the shadow cast by her famous husband.

In this biography, Iris Jamahl Dunkle draws the reader into Charmian’s private and public worlds, underscoring her literary achievements and the significant role she played in promoting her husband’s legacy. Her life, as Dunkle emphasizes, required fortitude and bravery, and in many ways it paralleled the history of the American West.

An illustrated talk by Iris Jamahl Dunkle, author

In an effort to spread the authority of England, London publishers often fostered the distribution of illustrated literary annuals and other serial forms to all of Britain’s colonial holdings, including India where Macauley claimed that British reading materials were culturally and socially superior over the colonial (and colonized) subjects. Editor and poet, David Lester Richardson, banked on this popularity by publishing the first literary annual in India, The Bengal Annual for 1830, which included 49 literary texts and 7 woodcut engravings. Far from the gilt-edged and lavishly bound London annuals, Richardson pronounced that “an Editor has to exercise his taste and skill in the arrangement of the various materials” (Preface iv) and opens the volume with a 6-stanza poem immediately followed by “The Literati of British India: A Sketch” by an anonymous author who declares that “we have in India few such personages as men of letters” (4) and that the demand for English literature as a hindrance to the growth of “an indigenous literature” (5). Even with all of this nationalist rhetoric, Richardson closes the 352-page volume with Harachandra Ghose’s translation of “Anacreon, An Ode” from Greek into Bengali. Does The Bengal Annual, despite Richardson’s protests, break free of British colonialism’s stranglehold on material forms of the serial? Or is The Bengal Annual simply another representation of Western capitalism co-opting cultural and artistic excellence for its own glorification? And, at that, promulgating the excellence of a literary form that had been disdainfully accused in 1829 of being merely women’s books?

An illustrated talk and digital exhibit by Katherine D. Harris, Professor, Department of English and Comparative Literature, San José State University

Richard H. “Dick” Dillon (1924-2016) was a world-famous western historian, librarian, teacher, and public speaker.  He enjoyed a very long (60+ year) and tremendously productive association with the Book Club of California.   Between 1951 and 2012 Dick Dillon published more than 90 articles and book reviews in the Book Club’s Quarterly News-Letter and more than another two dozen stand-alone publications, mostly fine-printed keepsakes, but also full-length books, including Texas Argonauts (1987:  Book Club Publication No. 186) and Napa Valley Heyday (2004:  Book Club Publication No. 218). Dillon served as President of the Book Club of California for two consecutive terms, from 1977 to 1979.

Dillon was the head librarian at the Sutro Library for nearly 30 years, and also taught librarianship and history at many institutions, including U.C. Berkeley, the University of Hawaii and UCLA, but for the longest uninterrupted period (40 years) at the University of San Francisco. No other California writer of recent vintage was as widely published:  he was the author of more than two dozen prize-winning full-length books at major commercial and university presses, of hundreds of articles and more than a thousand book reviews in scholarly journals, in popular magazines, and in more than a dozen different newspapers.  First published at age 10, Dick Dillon was a 4^th generation Californian and a decorated WWII WIA combat veteran. His 40 academic and literary awards, including the Book Club’s Oscar Lewis Award (1997) and the Laura Bride Powers Award from the City of San Francisco (1970), spanned a 73-year period.  His life and remarkable literary output have just been celebrated in a brand-new book, Aloha, Amigos! The Richard H. Dillon Memorial Volume, published as Brand Book 24 (2020) by the Los Angeles Corral of Westerners International.

This is a live, online presentation by Brian Dervin Dillon, Ph.D., editor and author

After H. G. Wells and Frederic Goudy collaborated on the Door in The Wall project — their creative compass seemed to always point west to “The Golden State” of California.

Part 1: “Time Traveler In Tinseltown” showcases H. G. Wells and Hollywood’s Golden Age — featuring such Sci-Fi classics as The Time Machine, The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds.

Part 2: “Frederic Goudy: The Titan of Type” explores the great private presses of the age: The Village Press, The Grabhorn Press and University of California Press and their finest printed editions from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, The Hollow Land by William Morris, Door in The Wall by H. G. Wells to Moby Dick by Herman Melville.

This talk will explore H. G. Wells first Sci-fi film and the creation of some of Goudy’s greatest California type designs. It will include some wonderful yarns of the key figures of the era — Mitchell Kennerley, William Morris, Sir Emery Walker, Henry James, George Bernard Shaw, William Randolph Hearst, Winston Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Orson Welles, Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Bertha Goudy, and Edwin, Robert and Jane Grabhorn.

An illustrated talk by Rex Parker, artist, designer, and illustrator

With years of research and more than 200 maps and images, Geraldine Knatz shapes an insightful story of the Port of Los Angeles, from its early entrepreneurs to the city’s business and political leadership, and the inevitable conflicts that arose between them. Knatz digs into the back stories of the key players in a hardcore, well-documented piece of storytelling at its best.

Port of Los Angeles matches a topic—the history of Los Angeles Harbor—with someone of unquestionable authority to tackle the subject. Knatz worked nearly four decades at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, her last eight years as Executive Director at Los Angeles. In this remarkable book, her expertise shows.

Port of Los Angeles reads like a script for another Chinatown, only this time it’s about saltwater and controlling the waterfront, not drinking water and controlling the land. Knatz takes readers on a journey that will educate and inspire, and fills these pages with real-life intrigue, masterminds, and politics extraordinaire. Port of Los Angeles will leave the world’s maritime aficionados spellbound and historians in awe. A must-read for anyone who treasures the history of Los Angeles.

A live, online presentation by Geraldine Knatz, author

This event is co-sponsored and hosted by the Pasadena Public Library

Glen Dawson (1912-2016) was a beloved and renowned man of books as well as an avid globe-trotting climber who achieved dozens of mountaineering first ascents. As a partner of Dawson’s Book Shop for 60 years, he was influential in rare book circles.

This program features the well-illustrated volume, tracing his long lifetime of accomplishments and including a history of the Book Shop, which was a cultural mecca for over a century.

A live online presentation by Elizabeth Pomeroy, author

The tension between men and women has been played out for centuries in Western culture. No more dramatic example of this tension exists than the Church’s organized persecution of women during the infamous witch-hunt trials. How did women come to be perceived as evil, all-powerful, and in the service of the Devil? What was the Church’s logic as it carried out this program of repression? What were the consequences? Join Leonard Pitt as he reveals this history with compelling images and abundant historical narration. Not for the faint of heart.

A live online presentation by Leonard Pitt, author, actor, and lecturer

Goldsmith and inventor Johannes Gutenberg was a political exile from Mainz, Germany when he began experimenting with printing in Strasbourg, France in 1440. He returned to Mainz several years later and by 1450, had a printing machine perfected and ready to use commercially: The Gutenberg press.

In this illustrated talk on the world and work of Johann Gutenberg, our speaker describes the principal actors involved and explains the specific conditions in the medieval world of Mainz, Germany, that gave rise to printing with moveable type.

A live online presentation by Alix Christie, novelist, printer, and journalist

Bunker Hill is the highest point of downtown Los Angeles, both literally and figuratively. Its circle of life has created a continuous saga of change, each chapter rich with captivating characters, structures, and culture. In Bunker Hill Los Angeles: Essence of Sunshine and Noir, historian Nathan Marsak tells the story of the Hill, from the district’s inception in the mid-19th century to its present day.

Once home to wealthy Angelenos living in LA’s “first suburb,” then the epicenter of the city’s shifting demographics and the shadow and vice of an urban underbelly, Bunker Hill survived its attempted erasure and burgeoned as a hub of arts, politics, business, and tourism. As compelling as the story of the destruction of Bunker Hill is—with all the good intentions and bad results endemic to city politics—it was its people who made the Hill at once desirable and undesirable. Marsak commemorates the poets and writers, artists and activists, little guys and big guys, and of course, the many architects who built and rebuilt the community on the Hill—time after historic time.

Any fan of American architecture will treasure Marsak’s analysis of buildings that have crowned the Hill: the exuberance of Victorian shingle and spindlework, from Mission to Modern, from Queen Anne to Frank Gehry, Bunker Hill has been home to it all, the ever-changing built environment.

A live, online presentation by Nathan Marask, author

This event is co-sponsored and hosted by the Pasadena Public Library

“Better words make for better wine” – Warren Winiarski.

The first wine guide to California wineries was Wines & Vines of California; Or, a Treatise on the Ethics of Wine Drinking, written by Frona Eunice Wait in 1889. The first major writer after Prohibition was Leon Adams. His book, The Wines of America, 1973, going into four editions played a major role in educating Americans about wine. Both were Californians and were firsts in promoting California wine. Two major California wine writers and two quintessential symbols of culture, wine and books.

A live online talk by Axel E. Borg, Distinguished Wine and Food Science Bibliographer Emeritus, University of California, Davis, and Jullianne Ballou, Warren Winiarski Wine Writer Collection Fellow, Special Collections, Shields Library, University of California, Davis

In the late nineteenth century, San Francisco’s merchant princes built grand stores for a booming city, each with its own niche. For the eager clientele, a trip downtown meant dressing up – hats, gloves, and stockings required – and going to Blum’s for Coffee Crunch cake or Townsend’s for creamed spinach. The I. Magnin empire catered to a selective upper-class clientele, while middle-class shoppers loved the Emporium department store with its Bargain Basement and Santa for the kids. Gump’s defined good taste, the City of Paris satisfied desires for anything French and edgy, youth-oriented Joseph Magnin ensnared the younger shoppers with the latest trends. Join author Anne Evers Hitz as she looks back at the colorful personalities that created six major stores and defined shopping in San Francisco.

A live online presentation by Anne Evers Hitz, author and editor

Click here to register. 

Born in 1908, the fourth child of a poor Armenian immigrant family, the writer William Saroyan grew up in a community that managed to escape the genocide in Armenia. Surrounded by love but not much food, the family struggled to build a new life in the agricultural community of Fresno. At three years old, Saroyan lost his father, Armenak, to a sudden illness. His mother, Takoohi, found work in San Francisco and moved her four children to an orphanage in Oakland where they spent the next five years. Eventually, the Saroyans moved to San Francisco, where William lived for many years. Saroyan used the rich collection of characters in both Fresno and San Francisco to delight readers and ultimately analyze the human condition. Although Saroyan was born in California, he carried with him the trauma of the Armenian Diaspora, viewing his world through two striking lenses that were each unfamiliar to the American public that largely lived on the East Coast.

Even though he won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940 and an Academy Award for Best Story in 1943, Saroyan has disappeared from the American literary canon, a memory shared only by people who came of age before the 1970s. In this talk, Saroyan’s cousin Charles Janigian will demonstrate what made Saroyan so exciting when he burst onto the scene in 1934 with his short stories, and what helped him sustain a writing career until his death in 1981. Janigian will share some of Saroyan’s short stories that illustrate the rhythmic, universal, and timeless nature of Saroyan’s prose, as well as rare artwork and ephemera held at Janigian’s archive, Forever Saroyan, in San Jose. He will show that Saroyan’s words are perhaps more relevant today than at any point in the last 100 years, and how we can reintroduce him to the American audience. This lecture also commemorates Saroyan’s birthday on August 31, 1908.

A live online presentation by Charles Janigian, writer, editor, collector, and managing director for Forever Saroyan, LLC

Click here to register. 

Mary Risala Laird has published letterpress books since 1969 as Quelquefois Press and as partner in Perishable Press Limited from 1969-84. Her teaching ricochets include San Francisco State University, Kala Institute, Naropa University, the San Francisco Center for the Book and most recently, Tibetan Handicraft Industries in Katmandu. She prints on a Vandercook Universal I. Poetry, jazz, painting, the mystics of all traditions, and long silent retreats lend meaning to her life and inspiration to her work. Her books may be found in collections across the U.S. and in London. She has three grown children and lives in Berkeley with her husband, John Malork.

A live online presentation by Mary Risala Laird, printer, book artist, and teacher

The Missing Pages is the biography of a manuscript that is at once art, sacred object, and cultural heritage. Its tale mirrors the story of its scattered community as Armenians have struggled to redefine themselves after genocide and in the absence of a homeland.

Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh follows in the manuscript’s footsteps through seven centuries, from medieval Armenia to the killing fields of 1915 Anatolia, the refugee camps of Aleppo, Ellis Island, and Soviet Armenia, and ultimately to a Los Angeles courtroom. Reconstructing the path of the pages, Watenpaugh uncovers the rich tapestry of an extraordinary artwork and the people touched by it. At once a story of genocide and survival, of unimaginable loss and resilience, The Missing Pages captures the human costs of war and persuasively makes the case for a human right to art.

A live online presentation by Heghnar Watenpaugh, Ph.D., author and professor of art history at the University of California, Davis

From Tejon Pass in the south to Mount Shasta in the north stretches one of California’s hidden gems, the heartland of the Great Central Valley. The most productive agricultural region anywhere in the world, the Central Valley is an entirely different California most tourists never see — a rural land of farms and industry, stunning natural beauty, and historic cities, populated by friendly, hard-working people.

Superbly illustrated with over 100 full-color original watercolor paintings, Landscapes and Landmarks of the Great Central Valley is a loving tribute to the Valley created by two native daughters, award-winning artist Pat Hunter and acclaimed writer Janice Stevens. Hunter and Stevens take the reader on a personal tour of their home region, showing the charms of the Valley’s agricultural heritage, natural scenery, history and architecture.

A live online presentation by Pat Hunter, artist, and Janice Stevens, author

California native Laura Smith Borrman will highlight some of the city’s iconic restaurants responsible for its wonderful old dishes and drinks, and show how folks can support them now as the industry is struggling. Some of these restaurants are the oldest on the West Coast – and others are relatively new artisans preserving important food culture – all facing an uncertain future.

A live online presentation by Laura Smith Borrman, writer, editor, story gatherer, and lover of food and drink.

Jo Mora was one of the first American artists to elevate the cultural importance of the Western frontier, presaging broad shifts in twentieth-century thought and expression. Discover the story of Jo Mora and his rich creative career, including his writing, printing, and publishing efforts. Through his celebration of the great glories of nature and of the human heart, Mora reminds us that the subject matter of all art is life.

The Book Club’s 238th publication, The Life and Times of Jo Mora: Iconic Artist of the American West is the first definitive biography of the artist Jo Mora (1876-1947), a gifted illustrator, painter, writer, cartographer, and sculptor of the American West. Written by Mora scholar Peter Hiller, the book interweaves fascinating biographical material with Mora’s personal letters, journal entries, and other writings — many never before seen by the public — to provide an intimate portrait of an important yet often overlooked artist.

A live online presentation by Peter Hiller, author, historian, and curator for the Jo Mora Trust Collection.

Members-only hospitality 5:00-5:45 PM
Non-member and general admission 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 PM

A launch party for the Book Club’s 240th publication with remarks by Russell Maret, editor, letter designer, and letterpress printer

Click here to RSVP

Members-only hospitality 5:00-5:45 PM
Non-member and general admission 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 PM

What can be deemed as a visual representation of Maya Angelou’s, “And Still We Rise,” through her camera lens, Adreinne Waheed’s Black Joy & Resistance masterfully captures, “The Souls of Black Folks,” and the majesty that flows outward when we tap into our true authentic selves.  Black Joy & Resistance chronicles this resistance and celebrates all that is joyous and magical about the culture that binds people of color throughout the diaspora.

An illustrated talk by Adreinne Waheed, photographer, photo editor, and visual artist

Click here to RSVP

Hospitality at 5:30 PM | Presentation at 6:00 PM

Historically, “road tripping” stood as a romanticized part of the American experience though this pastime did not necessarily hold the same allure for African Americans.  To compensate, Victor Hugo Green published The Negro Motorist Green Book which guided black travelers to safe spaces of rest and relaxation nationwide. This talk will discuss the historic challenges of black travel and the spaces of leisure that emerged for black travelers between the 1930s and 1960s.

An illustrated talk by Dr. Kenya Davis-Hayes, historian and professor of history, California Baptist University

*At the Women’s City Club of Pasadena,
160 N. Oakland Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101

Click here to RSVP. 

Reception 6:00 PM | Lecture 7:00 PM

Discover the story of Jo Mora and his rich creative career, including his artistic accomplishments in Los Angeles, at this illustrated talk by Peter Hiller, author, historian, and curator for the Jo Mora Trust Collection.

This event marks the Southern California reveal of the Book Club’s 238th publication, The Life and Times of Jo Mora: Iconic Artist of the American West — the first definitive biography of the artist Jo Mora (1876-1947), a gifted illustrator, painter, writer, cartographer, and sculptor of the American West. Written by Mora scholar Peter Hiller, the book interweaves fascinating biographical material with Mora’s personal letters, journal entries, and other writings — many never before seen by the public — to provide an intimate portrait of an important yet often overlooked artist.

Mora was one of the first American artists to elevate the cultural importance of the Western frontier, presaging broad shifts in twentieth-century thought and expression. Through his celebration of the great glories of nature and of the human heart, Mora reminds us that the subject matter of all art is life.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase at this lecture.

An illustrated talk by Peter Hiller, author, historian and curator for the Jo Mora Trust Collection

* At the Mark Taper Auditorium, Los Angeles Central Library, 630 West 5th Street, Los Angeles , CA 90071

Members-only hospitality 5:00-5:45 PM
Non-member and general admission 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 PM

Black Against Empire is the first comprehensive overview and analysis of the history and politics of the Black Panther Party. The authors analyze key political questions, such as why so many young black people across the country risked their lives for the revolution, why the Party grew most rapidly during the height of repression, and why allies abandoned the Party at its peak of influence. Bold, engrossing, and richly detailed, this book cuts through the mythology and obfuscation, revealing the political dynamics that drove the explosive growth of this revolutionary movement and its disastrous unraveling. Informed by twelve years of meticulous archival research, as well as familiarity with most of the former Party leadership and many rank-and-file members, this book is the definitive history of one of the greatest challenges ever posed to American state power.

An illustrated talk Dr. Waldo E. Martin, Jr., author and professor of American History and Citizenship, University of California, Berkeley

Click here to RSVP

Members-only hospitality 5:00-5:45 PM
Non-member and general admission 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 PM

Dr. Michelle H. Martin, author, essayist, lecturer, community literacy activist, and Beverly Cleary Endowed Professor for Children and Youth Services in the Information School at the University of Washington, will offer a visually-rich presentation on the historical evolution of this genre to illustrate the ways that African American children’s literature has been committed to social justice and equity from its beginnings, even when it was illegal in the U.S. to be Black and literate.

An illustrated talk by Dr. Michelle H Martin, author, lecturer, community literacy activist, and Beverly Cleary Endowed Professor for Children and Youth Services in the Information Schools at the University of Washington

Click here to RSVP

Members-only hospitality 5:00-5:30 PM
Non-member and general admission 5:30 PM
Program 5:30-7:00 PM

Letterpress print your own broadside on the Book Club’s Columbian hand press with Li Jiang, Lemoncheese Press

Click here to RSVP

*A limited number of broadsides will be printed.
Participation on a first come, first serve basis.

Members-only hospitality 5:00-5:45 PM
Non-member and general admission 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 PM

Shocking but true, this first definitive biography of Leland Stanford is the untold tale of a young man who failed at most every task he attempted, then in desperation ran away to Gold Rush California where he fell in with – and ultimately led – three partners intent on getting fabulously rich, eventually leading to Stanford’s becoming one of the “Big Four,” governor of California, and eventually, founder of Stanford University. 

An illustrated talk by Roland De Wolk, historian, journalist, and author

Hospitality at 5:30 PM | Presentation at 6:00 PM

Glen Dawson (1912-2016) was a beloved and renowned man of books as well as an avid globe-trotting climber who achieved dozens of mountaineering first ascents. As a partner of Dawson’s Book Shop for 60 years, he was influential in rare book circles.

This program features the well-illustrated volume, tracing his long lifetime of accomplishments and including a history of the Book Shop, which was a cultural mecca for over a century.

An illustrated talk by Elizabeth Pomeroy, author

At the Women’s City Club of Pasadena, 160 N. Oakland Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101

Click here to RSVP.

Members-only hospitality 5:00-5:45 PM
Non-member and general admission 5:45 PM
Program 6:00 PM

From its beginnings in Ancient China through its slow spread westward, paper has been an agent of transformation. In this hands-on library event, we will look at the plants used by different cultures to make paper and how the manufacturing process adapted to these raw materials. We will handle a variety of papers from around the world and discuss how the types of fibers and the production processes affect the character of the resulting sheets. Your favorite book will never feel the same!

A members-only talk by Elizabeth Newsom, librarian, Book Club of California

Click here to RSVP; Limited to 12 Members