Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the Clark has acquired a very rare chapbook published by George Smeeton, entitled “The Lover, or Cupid’s Mirror.” Chapbooks were small, cheap booklets that dispensed writings that were political, religious, poetical, literature or popular to the general public. Because they were so cheap to make and distribute, not many…

Oscar Wilde is remembered for many things, his writing, his poetry, and his infamous trial for gross indecency in 1895.  But what few remember are his crime-solving exploits with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Although Wilde was (as far as historians can tell) never an actual sleuth, he plays one in three new novels by Gyles…

The Clark’s Paul Landacre Archive is highlighted in a new post today on KCET’s SoCal Focus blog!  This post and others like it, written by USC’s Nathan Masters, are part of a new collaboration between LA as Subject, a local group of which we are a part, and KCET, a local non-profit television channel (formerly…

Mao, Zedong, 1893-1976. Mao zhu xi yu lu. [Beijing] : Zhongguo ren min jie fang jun, [1964] Call number: DS778 .M3 * First edition. Illustrations are a portrait of Mao and a facsimile of calligraphy by Lin Biao. Clark Library copy 1: first issue of first edition; bound in tan paper wrapper, printed in red…

The Clark acquired today’s item of the week in 1996, but it’s been sitting in our manuscript backlog since then.  Completely charming and pretty funny, this album of over 500 caricatures and drawings was executed in the late 18th century by an amateur artist probably from the Cheshire area. Some of the drawings in this…

A new show at the Clark opens tomorrow, featuring highlights from last year’s new purchases! Curated by our head librarian emeritus, Bruce Whiteman, before his departure in August, the show brings together new acquisitions from all of the Clark’s varied collecting areas. Images below show only a small selection of the works now on display….

  The Clark — and the rest of UCLA — will be closed from December 18th until January 3rd.  We hope you have a happy holiday season and a very happy new year!

The Clark recently purchased an apparently never-published poem by Selwyn Image, written in honor of John Milton’s tercentenary on December 9, 1908.  Our manuscript of the poem was actually written out a month after Milton’s December 9th birthday, on January 7, 1909, and was dedicated to “E.M.P.” In honorem J.M. Decr. 9. 1908. Three centuries!…

Hannah Phoebe Clark, 14 (72 human years), of the Clark Library, died this past Wednesday, December 1. She was born to unknown parents at an unknown date in the city of Beverly Hills, CA.  Hannah was street-learned, but she received an honorary Ph. D. from UCLA in 2002.  She had many male suitors but chose…