Current Exhibit | Exhibit Archive
Current Exhibit
February - September 2011
- John Fante: A Life in the Works
- Online exhibit
- See the UCLA Library Special Collections blog to view photographs and video of the Bonnie Cashin lecture presented by Fante's biographer, Stephen Cooper.
Forgotten in his lifetime, John Fante (1909-1983) is now widely considered one of the great outsider figures of twentieth-century American letters. Fante's autobiographical novels and stories of growing up poor, Catholic, and Italian-American in the xenophobic Colorado of his youth prefigured the later maturation of an ethnically diverse national literature. Likewise, his tragiccomic narratives of youthful desperation and romantic desire in Depression-era Los Angeles—savage, poetic, and ahead of their time—captured the spirit of the city in ways that still resonate today. Together with his satires of the Hollywood film industry, which Fante knew from a 40-year scriptwriting career, these works have become important touchstones in the cultural history of Los Angeles.
Featuring original manuscripts, screenplays, letters, diaries, and assorted other documents, both personal and professional, “John Fante: A Life in the Works” provides a window into Fante’s life, creative process, and literary milieu. The exhibit provides highlights from the John Fante Papers, an important collection acquired by the UCLA Library Special Collections in 2009. A finding aid to the collection is accessible at the Online Archive of California.
Exhibit Archive
2010
- A Letter from the Renaissance
The Double Soul
Ariel Soulé/Simon Toparovsky
a contemporary art installation for UCLA Library Special Collections, August - December 2010 - Archives Alive: Student Discoveries in the Center for Primary Research and Training, April - July 2010
2009
- Rio de Janeiro: Two Centuries of Urban Change (1808-2008), January - June 2009
2008
- Portrait of a Jewish Artist: R.B. Kitaj in Text and Image, January - April 2008. Held in conjunction with the Skirball Cultural Center's R.B. Kitaj: Passion and Memory.
- From Aldus to Aldous: Highlights from the Department of Special Collections, April - December 2008
2007
- The Orsini: A Roman Baronial Family in Context, January - March 2007
- Queen of the Great Good Place: Gertrude Stein and her Parisian Circle, April- June 2007
- From 12/7 to 9/11: Lessons from the Japanese American Internment, July - September 2007
- Medieval Manuscripts from the Collection of Richard and Mary Rouse, October 1-7 2007
- Transformations: The Persistence of Aldus Manutius, October - December 2007
2006
- Ramona Memories: Tourism and the Shaping of Southern California, December 2005 - April 2006
- Six Hundred Years of Near Eastern Manuscripts, April - May 2006
- Carey McWilliams: California's Advocate of Creative Dissent, June - September 2006
- Isadora: From California to the World, October - December 2006
2005
- Wilder Shores: Lady Travelers of the 18th and 19th Centuries, January-May 2005
- The Sleepy Lagoon Case: Constitutional Rights and the Struggle for Democracy, May-September 2005
- One Person's Truth: The Life and Work of Paul Monette (1945-1995), October-November 2005
2004
- Chic is where you find it: Selections from the Bonnie Cashin Collection of Theater, Film, and Fashion Design, January-May 2004
- A Centenary Celebration of Ralph J. Bunche, June-September 2004
- Make Beauty: Costumes by Dorothy Jeakins, September-December 2004
2003
- Dark and Light: Arthur Wesley Dow and His Influence, January-March 2003
- How Shall a Generation Know its Story: The Edgar Bowers Conference and Exhibition, April-June 2003
- Medieval Manuscripts from the Collection of Richard and Mary Rouse, September - December 2003
2002
- John D. Weaver: Celebrating 90 Years, February - March 2002
- The Southern High Latitudes in Southern California: Antarctica at UCLA.
An exhibition to celebrate the publication of Antarctica, 1772-1922: Freestanding Publications Through 1999 by Michael H. Rosove, M.D., April 2002 - The Susan Sontag Archive at the UCLA Library, May 2002
- In the Powell Library Rotunda: A Tribute to Lawrence Clark Powell, June 2002
- SOCALled Books: Diversity in Artists' Books from Southern California, July - September 2002
- Borges : The Time Machine, October - November 2002
- Season's Greetings: A selection of holiday items from the Charles E. Young Library Department of Special Collections, December 2002
2001
- Recent Acquisitions in the Department of Special Collections: Modern Fine Printing and Graphic Arts: Artists’ Books by Julie Chen and Mary Heebner, September 2001
- Aldus Manutius at UCLA : An Exhibition in Honor of the Publication of The Aldine Press: Catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy Collection, October 2001
- Recent Acquisitions in the Department of Special Collections: Popular Literature and Printed Materials: Illustrated books by Barbara Hodgson, November 2001
- Ricky Jay and the Magic of Books , December 2001 - January 2002
2000
- A Curious Variety of Mazes and Meanders: The Voyages of Captain James Cook in the Global Eighteenth Century, November 1999 - March 2000
- Not Tantamount to Rarity: Fifty Years of Collecting, An exhibit celebrating a half century of Special Collections at the UCLA Library, April - June 2000
1999
- Snarks, Jabberwocks, Crocodiles, and Mice Tails: Lewis Carroll, the Poet and the Parodist, Illuminated, November 1998 - January 1999
1998
- Here to Go: William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg in The Kurtzman Collection in the UCLA Department of Special Collections, February 1998. Visit the online version of William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg: a select bibliography of works in the UCLA University Library, published by the UCLA University Library in 1998 as an outgrowth of the Here to Go exhibition.
- They Tell Us More Than The Weather: Eighteenth Century American Almanacs, July - October 1998
1997
- Picturing Childhood : Illustrated children's books from University of California collections, 1550-1990, April - June 1997
- Some Favorite Things: The Rare Books Librarian surveys additions to Special Collections, 1983-1997, December 1997 - January 1998