Finding Aid for the Hart Press Collection 1932-1961

Processed by Jamie Henricks.

William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

University of California, Los Angeles

2520 Cimarron Street

Los Angeles, CA 90018

Phone: (323) 731-8529

Fax: (323) 731-8617

Email: rfenning@humnet.ucla.edu

URL: http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/clarklib/

Descriptive Summary

Title: Hart Press Collection,

Date (inclusive): 1932-1961

Collection number: Press Coll. Hart

Creator: Hart, James D. (James David), 1911-1990

Extent: 1 box (2.5 linear inches)

Repository: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

Los Angeles, California 90018

Abstract: This collection contains items printed by James D. Hart of the Hart Press. Included are individual pieces of ephemera and keepsake printed booklets or pamphlets. Some are about Western America, including the California Gold Rush.

Physical location: Clark Library

Language of Material: Collection materials in English

Access

Collection is open for research.

Publication Rights

Copyright has not been assigned to the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts or printed items must be submitted in writing to the Clark Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Hart Press Collection, Press Coll. Hart, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Acquisition Information

Items in this collection were donated from individuals, or collected over time by the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. Individual donated items have the donor's name written in pencil. Donors include James Hart, Samuel T. Farquhar, Wilder Bentley, and Lawrence Clark Powell.

Processing History

Processed by Jamie Henricks, August 2009.

Biography

James David Hart was born in San Francisco in 1911. He received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in American Literature from Harvard. He later became a faculty member of Berkeley as an English professor, held the post of Vice Chancellor of the Berkeley campus from 1957-1960, and was also the director of the Bancroft Library from 1969 to 1970.

He was a member of the Board of Trustees of Mills College, as well as being a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Antiquarian Society. Hart served as president of the Book Club of California from 1950 to 1960. Hart wrote and edited multiple books, including the Oxford Companion to American Literature. He also printed his own ephemera (mainly about the Western United States) in his home, the location of the Hart Press.

He married twice: Ruth Hart (died in 1977), and Constance Crowley Bowles Hart (who survived Hart) and had two children. Hart died in 1990 in Berkeley.

Scope and Content

This collection contains items printed by James D. Hart of the Hart Press. Included are individual pieces of ephemera and keepsake printed booklets or pamphlets. Some are about Western America, including the California Gold Rush.

Arrangement

The collection arrived with little order imposed on it. Some items were in folders, and larger pamphlets were loose. Items in folders were left in their original order, but the loose pamphlets were arranged in chronological order by date of publication.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects

Printers--California--20th century

Private presses--California--20th century

Small presses--California--20th century

Hart Press

Genres and Forms

Ephemera--California--20th century

Box 1, Folder 1

A Letter from Stephen Reynolds of Honolulu to Thomas O. Larkin of San Francisco, November 1848 / introductory note by Adele Ogden 1948

Scope and Content Note

This item is a reprint by the Hart Press of a letter for the Book Club of California as part eleven of "Letters of the Gold Discovery". The folder contains an introductory note, a transcript of the letter, and a facsimile reproduction of the letter.

Box 1, Folder 2

Mr. Houseman's Message / by Ezra Pound [1933?]

Box 1, Folder 3

Announcement for sale of Bayside Bohemia / by Gelett Burgess; introduction by James D. Hart 1954

Box 1, Folder 4

An Essay on Scholarship / by Joseph Addison 1941

Box 1, Folder 5

Ephemera 1940-1961

Scope and Content Note

Includes "Portrait" by e.e. cummings (1940), "Christmas in Plymouth" (1961), a piece for the type specimen book of the Pelican Press by Francis Meynell and printed by Hart (1959), and an announcement for the sale of "My First Publication", edited and with introductions by Hart (1961).

The Cod Head / by William Carlos Williams 1932

Note

Printed at the Harvest Press, San Francisco. Unknown whether James Hart was involved in printing, but the item is a gift from Hart to the Clark Library.

Cruelty to Seamen: Being the Case of Nichols and Couch / by Richard Henry Dana, Jr. 1937

Note

Printed as a keepsake for the Roxburghe Club.

"The World Below the Brine": A Poem from the Sea-Drift Section of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass 1892 Edition 1940

Constitutional Metaphors, a Review of James M. Beck's "The Constitution of the United States," originally published in 'The New Republic' of February 11, 1925 / by Thomas Reed Powell 1941

The Mote in the Middle Distance: A Parody of Henry James / by Max Beerbohm; illustrations by Lloyd Hoff 1946

Ode to the Virginian Voyage / by Michael Drayton 1946

After This, Sea / by Josephine Miles 1947

Scope and Content Note

Part six of the California Poetry Folios; The Book Club of California.

A Forty Niner's Christmas / by William Downie 1947

George Washington 1947

Scope and Content Note

Excerpts from a letter about George Washington written by Thomas Jefferson, January 2, 1814, to Dr. Walter Jones.

Three Poems by the Long Island Farmer Bloodgood H. Cutter 1948

Reginald's Christmas Revel / by Saki 1949

Berkeley: Xanadu of the San Francisco Bay / by Bret Harte 1951

Dickens and Christmas, as George Moore might well have described them / by Max Beerbohm 1955