UCLA Library

As Los Angeles grew into a cultural epicenter in the 1920s, its flourishing fine printing scene prompted bookseller Jake Zeitlin to declare it "a small renaissance." A key figure in this movement was William Andrews Clark Jr., a philanthropist and bibliophile whose collection later founded the Clark Library. Between 1922 and 1933, Clark commissioned ten annual Christmas books for friends and institutions, each uniquely combining a facsimile of a rare first edition with a lavish modern reprint. This paper argues that these Christmas books represented a unique fusion of bibliographic scholarship and cultural patronage that redefined private collectors' relationship with public culture. Through analysis of production records and correspondence, this study reveals how these books transcended conventional gift-giving to create cultural artifacts that preserved bibliographic heritage, advanced fine printing aesthetics, built bibliographical networks, and forged a transformative legacy in American book culture.