How to Live Life.
Los Angeles: Abbey Handset Press and Bindery, 1929. First edition. One of 200 copies. Previous sellers have claimed that Carruthers is a pseudonym of either Clyde Browne, or his son Jack, who together, under their shared Fathersonian imprint of Browne’s Abbey Press, produced the present work. However, we cannot confirm this. It is indeed possible, given the absence of any historical record of a Jack or John F. Carruthers Jr., that these are pseudonyms for Clyde and Jack, respectively, and that the work’s central conceit is a fiction. Regardless, the work’s publication constitutes a meaningful joint venture between Clyde Browne, an important—if somewhat under-sung—Los Angeles printer and architect, and his son. Browne served as a mentor for numerous Southern California bibliophiles and printers, including Lawrence Powell and Ward Ritchie. His grandson (though Clyde Brown died before his birth) is the singer-songwriter Jackson Browne. Hand-set Poliphilus type. Occasional light foxing to edges of pages throughout. Very good +. Green cloth spine over decorated paper boards. Green endpapers. Uncut. Twelvemo. 5 x 6 in. xiii, 41 pp. Item #17937
From the preface: “The way I wrote this book is I talked into an ediphone and then Daddy had a woman typewriter type my book on paper, then I sent it to the printer’s. I got some advice on chapters. I was asked how would you like this for a chapter? And after a while I chose four chapters that I thought were best. Nobody helped me make the book in the way of words. I was helped in writing the introduction, but the chapters I did all myself. When I was writing the book no one was in the room. I was eight years old when I wrote the book. I wish to thank all printers and all people who gave me advice about this book and the way they told me how to do it and their help to me I want to them all; these are the names: Dr. John Carruthers, Thomas A. Edison. — John F. Carruthers, Jr.”.
See PBS SoCal “The Bohemian Brownes of the Arroyo Seco”.
Price: $150.00