Title: Book Club of California

Dates: 1914-

Collection Number: BCC

Creator/Collector: Book Club of California

Extent: 25 linear feet

Repository: McCune Rare Books and Art Collection

Abstract: A complete collection of BCC annual publications, quarterlies and keepsakes. The Book Club of California's publications are their most substantive, vital, and lasting achievement. The Book Club has a distinguished history of printing books, keepsakes, and ephemera strong in attention to high craft, fine design, and letterpress printing. Over the past 100 years, The Book Club has played an important, significant and durable role in the history and preservation of the arts of fine printing within California. The club has achieved this distinction by actively embracing printing as a fine art, publishing exemplary books on the art and history of local culture. The authors of these books -many of them club members- include historians, scholars, professional writers, and poets. The books are carefully conceived, thoughtfully designed, and attractively printed in limited editions, often by the foremost fine press printers in the country. In most cases, this represents the first and only appearance of their texts in printed form. The club has been recognized as the only club in America continually publishing fine press books since 1914 (and has received numerous awards for them). In so doing, the Book Club of California has given Californians a perspective on their heritage enjoyed by the residents of no other state. In 1933, the Book Club of California inaugurated its Quarterly News-Letter (now the Book Club of California Quarterly) and Annual Printed Keepsake, both of which continue uninterrupted to this day.

Language of Material: English

Collection open for research by appointment

All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use BCC collection materials must be submitted to The McCune Collection. Consent is given on behalf of The McCune Collection as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner.

Restrictions also apply to digital representations of original BCC materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.

Book Club of California archived in The McCune Collection

The annual publications are letterpress editions with most years having one or more publications. The Quarterlies are pamphlets housed in cardboard boxes, generally 9x6 inches under 20 pages each. Keepsakes are in a variety of formats including pamphlets, leaflets, and are also letterpress publications of varying sizes each year. Both Quarterlies and Keepsakes have been ongoing from 1933 forward.