From Bruce Whiteman, Head Librarian This second edition (in fact a re-issue of the 1705 edition with an altered title-page) of Bladen’s translation of Caesar is one of the very earliest publications of Edmund Curll (1675-1747), the infamous London publisher of naughty books and the nemesis of Alexander Pope. Curll took over the shop of…

Please join the West Adams Heritage Association for an ice cream social on the Clark Library grounds this Saturday, August 14th, from 1.30-4.30pm.  More information is available at the WAHA website!

Tucked away on the south side of the Clark Library is the outdoor reading room, a little-used space of late that contains some wonderful sculpture.  One of these sculptures is a casting of the face of Copernicus, made from a full-length statue of the astronomer by Archibald Garner.  This full-length statue is a part of…

William Andrews Clark, Jr’s younger half-sister, Huguette, was the topic of a story featured on the Today Show last week. Though a little bit sensational — one does understand why Huguette retired from the public eye in the first place — there are still some interesting tidbits of information about her as a person, discussed…

William Andrews Clark, Jr. founded not only our Clark library, but also funded the building of Clark Hall at his alma mater, the University of Virginia.  Originally the law library (Mr Clark was part of the law school class of 1899), Clark Hall now houses the Science and Engineering Library, but still contains the same…

From Derek Quezada, Clark Library Assistant: Although the occult exhibition has come and gone, we here at the Clark feel that a number of the books showcased still have a bit more to offer. One of them is an unusual manuscript entitled, A Treatise on Witchcraft (1793) by Ebenezer Sibly. Itself a transcription of another…

A couple of weeks ago, some Clark staff members (lucky enough to be outside in the middle of the day), ran into Krishna while he was setting up a surprise 10th anniversary picnic on our lawn for his wife Elaine. They grew up in our neighborhood: Krishna even attended 24th Street School, right down the street…

As some of our readers may be aware, our founder William Andrews Clark, Jr. is now on Facebook.  Staff have long suspected him of haunting the library, a suspicion recently confirmed by a psychic medium present at the opening of our recent exhibition on the occult.  Whether Mr Clark’s social networking presence is an ongoing…

The Clark is featured in an article in the Los Angeles Times today, June 15th.  Reporter Sam Allen knows what he is talking about in singing the library’s praises: he was a student this past spring quarter in Professor Joseph Bristow’s Oscar Wilde seminar.

Inspired by Hector Tobar’s article in the LA Times last week, our manuscript librarian sought out Paul and Margaret Landacre’s Echo Park house this past Saturday. The house is Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument no. 839 and is marked by this sign on El Moran. You can still make out the “Landacre” on the mailbox