Hardcover. Pasadena CA, Pasadena Museum of California Art, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 149 pages, illustrated in color. Bright, clean copy in similar dust jacket. Catalog of an exhibition organised by the Pasadena Museum of Californian Art and held there and at the Gibbes Museum, Charleston, South Carolina, in 2005-6. The book presents 77 works, reproduced in excellent colour as half and full page plates, including nudes, figures and urban and rural landscapes. William Gerdts offers a scene-setting Introduction after which Solon provides an in-depth study of the artist's life and work. This includes his marriage, travels abroad including Europe, Panama and Mexico, experience as an aerial photographer in the Great War, return to Southern California and life in Pasadena, a region that was recommended for health reasons, and a final decade marked by ill-health that contributed to the general decline in his reputation outside of the local art community.
Hardcover. New York, Abbeville Press, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 328 pages, illustrated throughout with 213 plates in color and b&w. Maroon cloth with white title to spine, pictorial dust jacket. Beautiful copy. Like new. The rich artistic and social history of the Arts and Crafts movement in California, as well as the highly collectible objects it produced. In a brief but intensely prolific period between about 1895 and 1930. Essays by Leslie Greene Bowman, Bruce Kamerling, Cheryl Robertson, Joseph A. Taylor, David C. Streatfield, Karen J. Weitze and Richard Guy Wilson.
Hardcover. New York, The Monacelli Press, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover. Like new in publisher's shrink-wrap. A beautifully produced monograph devoted to the paintings and drawings of John Altoon, a central figure in the Los Angeles art scene of the 1950s and 1960s. Haunting and erotic, Altoon's colorful paintings and intimate drawings capture the magical moment in postwar California between the Beat Generation and the sexual and psychedelic revolution of the late '60s.
Hardcover. NY, Reagan Books, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 272 pages. Through striking illustrations and stunning photographs, Bohemian Modern explores the unique structural and interior designs that have put California's ultra-chic Silver Lake neighborhood at the forefront of a new style phenomenon. One of the country's most renowned modernist architects, Barbara Bestor has fully embraced and perfected Silver Lake's "bohemian modern" style: a practical philosophy that is Californian in origin but achievable anywhere. It is a look that favors raw, authentic materials, brilliant colors, creative space planning, and a natural flow between indoors and outdoors. The results, as Bohemian Modern presents, are striking: a flawlessly restored Neutra house decorated with both whimsy and restraint, a rooftop constructed for viewing the stars, a lavish outdoor garden delicately integrated into the surrounding architecture, a double-sided bookcase that soars three stories and serves as a functional art installation...there is no limit to the creativity and beauty of Silver Lake style.
Hardcover. Sausalito CA, Windgate Press, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 172 pages illustrated in color. These beautiful and colorful promotional materials were designed to attract tourists and home seekers to the Golden State. Produced by the thousands, these now rare publications touted California as a land of perpetual spring and boundless opportunity. Many of the posters in this book are part of a special collection held at the California State Library. Clean copy.
Softcover. San Francisco, CA, Chronicle Books, 6th pr., 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 180 pages. Softcover. Black and white pictures throughout. Clean tight copy.
Softcover. San Francisco, Chronicle Books, 1st, 1980, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 142 pages, 8"x8' . This book documents 100 'decorated sheds' that were built in the 1920s-'40s, including giant cream-cans, flower-potslemons, pumpkins, cats, dogs, owls, Mother Hubbard's boots, etc. Mostly b&w photos.
Hardcover. NY, Abrams, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 176 pages. Brings together photography, designs, stills, and ads to chronicle California-influenced fashions between 1850 and the present, from Rudi Gernreich's infamous topless bathing suit to the celebrity designs of Bob Mackie and Jean Louis.
Hardcover. San Francisco, Chronicle, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 112 pages. Hardcover. Black & white photography. Viewer in rear. No dust jacket issued. Clean, tight copy.
Softcover. Omaha NE, Union Pacific System , 1930, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover booklet, 48 pages, stapled mauve paper covers with embossed design stamped in gilt, pink and black. A travel guide for passengers on the Union Pacific, b&w illustrations throughout. Excellent condition, bright, unmarked.
Hardcover. New York, Arno Press, reprint, 1976, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 227 pages plus 112 b&w and color plates. Cream colored boards. Light smudging to covers and edges. Else a very clean, tight copy. A facsimile reprint of the 1935 first edition, a study of 19th century lithography in California.
Hardcover. Los Angeles, CA, Getty Research Institute, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 320 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Very clean, unmarked copy still in publishers shrink-wrap. Color photographs throughout. California Video presents the first comprehensive survey of the history of video art in California. Since the late 1960s
Hardcover. New York, Random House, 1st, 1939, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Non- paginated. Hardcover. Extensive b&w photographs throughout. Illustrated title page. Some edge wear to top edge, otherwise clean, tight copy.
Hardcover. San Diego, Sunbelt Publications, Revised Ed., 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 246 pages, color photographs and illustrations throughout, illustrated end paper. The Great Murals of Mexico's Baja California are one of the five greatest sites in the world for primitive rock art. They rank with those of southern France, northern Spain, northwest Africa, and outback Australia. These Great Murals, created by an unknown people, are without doubt the most distinctive trove of rock art in the Western Hemisphere. The site was unveiled to the modern world in the 1960s by adventure/mystery writer Erle Stanley Gardner who brought in UCLA archaeologist Clement Meighan to validate the importance of his find. But it was not until the 1970s, when author/photographer Harry W. Crosby undertook a systematic search for the largely unknown works hidden in the mountains of central Baja that the scope and significance of the find became known. He documented his search and discovery of over 200 previously unreported rock art sites leading to the original publication of The Cave Paintings of Baja California by Copley Books in 1975 which first introduced this cave art to the general public. Since that time, Baja California's Great Murals have been designated a United Nations Heritage Site. This lavishly illustrated full-color account is greatly revised and expanded from the original edition and offers Crosby's unique perspective on the painted sites and painting styles found in different parts of the Great Mural area. Light edge wear to dust jacket. Else a very clean, tight copy.
Hardcover. Los Angeles, Angel City Press, 1st, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, illustrated boards, 100 pages. We may never be able to toast Frank Sinatra with a Flame of Love martini, join Jimmy and Gloria Stewart over calf's liver and onions, or share a steaming bowl of Boiled Beef Belmont with the President and Mrs. Reagan on Tuesday nights. But we can come close. CHASEN'S has every great recipe that kept the stars coming back for more, plus its fascinating text stirs delivers the dish on the restaurant and its famous fans. Recipes include the world famous Chasen's Chili that Elizabeth Taylor had air-freighted to the Cleopatra set in Italy, the Chicken Pot Pie served to Queen Elizabeth, the Shirley Temple cocktail that Chasen's bartender invented for the curly-topped star, and a host of other favorites including Deviled Beef Bones, Banana Shortcake, Sole Hitchcock, Coupe Snowball, and the dish President Reagan always ordered, Boiled Beef Belmont.
Hardcover. NY, Rizzoli, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, More than a century ago, when Abbot Kinney built his Venice-of-America with its network of canals and fanciful buildings, cultural aspirations were high. Over the years, this aura of fantasy and imaginative possibility endured as integral to the zeitgeist of the place. Today, this spirit of innovation and creativity is richly expressed in the vintage bungalows and cottages that have been embraced and brought back to life by homeowners more in love with place than size. Stalwart survivors of the ebb and flow of the area's fortunes over a century, these small homes channel the creative spirit of the place and provide a welcome counterpoint to oversize houses. Color, landscape, treasured collections, personal narrative, contemporary overlays and additions, art and craft, and inventive design--all combine in various ways to produce domestic environments with unique and deeply personal points of view.
Hardcover. Nevada City CA, Carl Mautz Publishung, 1st, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Oblong hardcover. 111 pages. Researched and edited by Susan Herzig and Paul Hertzman. Essay by Peter Palmquist. Includes 60 illustrations with 47 color and duotone plates.
Softcover. NewYork, Aperture, 2nd, 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Vol. 1: 214 pages. Softcover. B/w illustrations throughout. Covers slightly yellow with age, clean inside and intact. Vol. 2: 290 pages. Softcover. B/w illustrations throughout. Covers slightly yellow with age, clean inside and intact. Soil/stain on bottom foredge, does not affect pages. From the back cover of Vol. 1: "To see, to react, to create; these are the fundamentals of all art production. But also to share is the measure of the great artist and the great person. In both his magnificent photographs and in the confidences and clarifications of his Daybook, Edward Weston takes us into himself and shares with us his particular mirror of beauty and compassion."
Hardcover. Fresno CA, Mariposa County Historical Society, 1st, 1979, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, orange cloth stamped in black, 118 pages, b&w illustrations. Horace C. Snow, the writer of the "Dear Charlie" letters, was one of many young men who came to California to make their fortune in the gold fields. Laid in is a 8-page supplement containing a lost letter not included in the first edition. Signed on title page by a member of the historical society. Spine faded. Clean copy.
Hardcover. Chicago, IL, Laird & Lee, 1st, 1906, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 186 pages. Hardcover. Illustrated front cover. Photo illustrated throughout. Green cloth spine. Original binding with a touch of water staining on front cover right corner. Pages and edges have a touch of tanning from age, doesn't affect text or images. Spine is becoming separated from coverboard, but still attached and repairable. "A vivid and realistic story graphically depicting San Fancisco's great fire."
Softcover. Berkeley CA, University of California Press, 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover. 314 pages, b&w illustrations. In 1930 the Olmsted Brothers and Harland Bartholomew & Associates submitted a report, "Parks, Playgrounds, and Beaches for the Los Angeles Region," to the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. After a day or two of coverage in the newspapers, the report dropped from sight. The plan set out a system of parks and parkways, children's playgrounds, and public beaches. It is a model of ambitious, intelligent, sensitive planning commissioned at a time when land was available, if only the city planners had had the fortitude and vision to act on its recommendations. "Parks, Playgrounds, and Beaches" has become a highly valued but difficult-to-find document. In this book, Greg Hise and William Deverell examine the reasons it was called for, analyze why it failed, and open a discussion about the future of urban public space. In addition to their introduction and a facsimile reproduction of the report, Eden by Design includes a dialogue between Hise, Deverell, and widely admired landscape architect Laurie Olin that illuminates the significance of the Olmsted-Bartholomew report and situates it in the history of American landscape planning. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, W. W. Norton & Company, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 580 pages, b&w illustrations. Los Angeles is a city founded on blood. Once a small Mexican pueblo teeming with Californios, Indians, and Americans, all armed with Bowie knives and Colt revolvers, it was among the most murderous locales in the Californian frontier. In Eternity Street: Violence and Justice in Frontier Los Angeles, "a vivid, disturbing portrait of early Los Angeles" (Publishers Weekly), John Mack Faragher weaves a riveting narrative of murder and mayhem, featuring a cast of colorful characters vying for their piece of the city. These include a newspaper editor advocating for lynch laws to enact a crude manner of racial justice and a mob of Latinos preparing to ransack a county jail and murder a Texan outlaw. In this "groundbreaking" (True West) look at American history, Faragher shows us how the City of Angels went from a lawless outpost to the sprawling metropolis it is today. A riveting popular history of Los Angeles's bloody beginnings. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, WW Norton & Co, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 580 pages, 16 pages of illustrations. Eternity Street tells the story of a violent place in a violent time: the rise of Los Angeles from its origins as a small Mexican pueblo. In a masterful narrative, John Mack Faragher relates a dramatic history of conquest and ethnic suppression, of collective disorder and interpersonal conflict. Eternity Street recounts the struggle to achieve justice amid the turmoil of a loosely governed frontier, and it delivers a piercing look at the birth of this quintessentially American city. In the 1850s, the City of Angels was infamous as one of the most murderous societies in America. Saloons teemed with rowdy crowds of Indians and Californios, Mexicans and Americans. Men ambled down dusty streets, armed with Colt revolvers and Bowie knives. A closer look reveals characters acting in unexpected ways: a newspaper editor advocating lynch law in the name of racial justice; hundreds of Latinos massing to attack the county jail, determined to lynch a hooligan from Texas. Murder and mayhem in Edenic southern California. "There is no brighter sun...no country where nature is more lavish of her exuberant fullness," an Angeleno wrote in 1853. "And yet, with all our natural beauties and advantages, there is no country where human life is of so little account. Men hack one another to pieces with pistols and other cutlery as if God's image were of no more worth than the life of one of the two or three thousand ownerless dogs that prowl about our streets and make night hideous." Like-new.