Lawrence Clark Powell

thumb|Lawrence Powell (1960) '''Lawrence Clark Powell''' (September 3, 1906–March 14, 2001) was an American librarian, literary critic, bibliographer and author of more than 100 books.<ref>[http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/results/getResults.jhtml?_DARGS=/hww/results/results_common.jhtml.17 "Powell, Lawrence Clark."] Current Biography. 1960. Current Biography. Online. H.W. Wilson. Accessed January 10, 2008.</ref> Powell "made a significant contribution to the literature of the library profession, but he also writes for the book-minded public. His interests are reflected in the subjects that recur throughout his writings; these are history and travel, especially concerning the American Southwest, rare books, libraries and librarianship, the book trade, and book collecting."<ref name="uclaarchive" />

==Biography==

Powell was born September 3, 1906<ref name="uclaoralhistory">[http://oralhistory.library.ucla.edu/viewTextFile.do?itemId=29606&fileSeq=5&xsl=null Lawrence Clark Powell oral history recorded/transcribed UCLA]</ref> in Washington, D.C. of Quaker parents, G. Harold and Gertrude (Clark) Powell.<ref name="uclaarchive">[http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt409nb25x/admin/ UCLA Special Collections: L.C. Powell Archive]</ref> His father was a general manager of the Sunkist Cooperative, and the family spent Powell's early winters in Riverside.<ref name="latimesobit" />

Powell's family moved to South Pasadena, California when he was five years old, and there he attended public schools, graduating from South Pasadena High School.<ref name="uclaoralhistory" /><ref name="latimesobit" /><ref name="booksbaggage">{{cite book |last=Powell|first=Lawrence Clark|date=1960|title=Books in My Baggage|location=Cleveland and New York|publisher=The World Publishing Company|pages=256–257| chapter=About the Author}}</ref>

He received a B.A. from Occidental College in 1928. According to his obituary in the ''Los Angeles Times'', "During the Depression, he worked as a shipping clerk at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena and for Fowler Books in Los Angeles and local rare bookstores until Los Angeles City Librarian Althea Hester Warren, in Powell's words, 'plucked me out of Jake Zeitlin's bookshop and sent me off to Berkeley.' " Powell later returned to Los Angeles to work for Warren at the Central Library in downtown Los Angeles.

He earned a doctorate from the University of Burgundy in Dijon (''Université de Bourgogne'') in 1932 (having written his dissertation on Robinson Jeffers<ref name="booksbaggage" />), and a Certificate of Librarianship from the University of California, Berkeley in 1937.

In 1938, Powell started working at University of California, Los Angeles in the acquisitions department of the library.<ref name="uclamemoriam">[http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/Lawrence-Clark-Powell-Former-University-2217 Lawrence Clark Powell, Former University Librarian and Founding Dean of the Library School, Dies]</ref> He was University Librarian at the UCLA Library from 1944 to 1961, and head librarian of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library from 1944 until 1966.<ref name="latimesobit">{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-mar-20-me-40206-story.html|title=Lawrence Clark Powell; Lifted UCLA Library to Prominence|last1=Oliver|first1=Myrna|date=March 20, 2001|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=2016-01-30}}</ref> He was the first dean of the School of Library Service at UCLA, which later merged to become the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. He was also a lecturer in English at UCLA and a visiting professor at the Columbia University School of Library Service.<ref name="booksbaggage" /> Under his directorship, the UCLA library "quadrupled in size," numbering some 1.5 million volumes circa 1960.<ref name="booksbaggage" /> He acquired "such noted collections as Michael Sadleir's Victorian Fiction and the 80,000-volume library of C.K. Ogden, originator of Basic English."<ref name="booksbaggage" /> The Powell Library at UCLA is named for him.<ref>"Lawrence Clark Powell" (2001). ''The Book Collector,'' 50 no.2 (summer) 273-274.</ref>

Powell was a Guggenheim Fellow in Great Britain in 1950–51.<ref name="booksbaggage" />

He had a monthly column on "Books of the West" for ''Westways'' magazine.<ref name="latimesobit" />

In 1977 he was awarded the Sir Thomas More Medal for Book Collecting, by the University of San Francisco Gleeson Library and the Gleeson Library Associates.<ref> [https://web.archive.org/web/20030705051345/http://usfca.edu/library/rarebook/gla/medal.html Sir Thomas More Medal for Book Collecting.] University of San Francisco Library and the Gleeson Library Associates. Retrieved from The Wayback Machine July 9, 2024.</ref>

After retiring from UCLA in 1966, Powell moved to Tucson, Arizona in 1971, where—as Professor in Residence for nearly two decades—he was instrumental in the growth of the University of Arizona Graduate School of Library Science, now known as the University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science. The University of Arizona Libraries special collections holds Powell's papers documenting his time in Tucson,<ref>{{cite web | title = Lawrence Clark Powell papers (MS 376) | url = https://archives.library.arizona.edu/repositories/2/resources/1460 | publisher = Special Collections, University of Arizona Libraries | date = 1890–2001 }}</ref> and the Fay and Lawrence Clark Powell Endowment for Southwest Research continues to support Powell's interest in the geography of the southwest United States.<ref>University of Arizona. Support, ''Special Collections''. Retrieved September 5, 2013, from http://speccoll.library.arizona.edu/support.</ref>

The Lawrence Clark Powell Memorial Lecture is held in Tucson annually in Powell's honor, with noted authors speaking about topics relevant to Powell's work, and Lifetime Achievement awards have been granted at the Memorial Lecture in prior years.<ref>Pima County Community Library. Lawrence Clark Powell Memorial Lectures, ''Books''. Retrieved September 17, 2013, from http://www.library.pima.gov/books/lcp/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130615005033/http://www.library.pima.gov/books/lcp/ |date=2013-06-15 }}.</ref>

Powell was a president of the Bibliographical Society of America, the California Library Association, and the Zamorano Club of Los Angeles, and also a member of the Roxburghe Club of Los Angeles, the Caxton Club of Chicago, and the Grolier Club of New York.

In 1981 he was awarded American Library Association Honorary Membership.

He died at La Rosa Health Center in Tucson, Arizona at age 94.<ref name="latimesobit" /> His wife, née Fay Ellen Shoemaker, died around 1991.<ref name="latimesobit" /> The couple had two sons,<ref name="booksbaggage" /> one named Norman.<ref name="latimesobit" />

==Literary friendships== In 1934, Powell moved to Laguna Beach, California with his wife Fay, to live next door to M.F.K. Fisher, with whom he maintained a great correspondence and friendship.<ref>Barr, Norah Kennedy (1993), Foreword to Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me: journals and stories, 1933–1941, M. F. K. Fisher. New York: Pantheon Books p.XI</ref> (The couple later lived in Malibu, until the family home—and the book collection contained therein—was destroyed in the 1978 Malibu fire.<ref name="latimesobit" />)

In the 1930s, Powell was a correspondent, friend and bibliographer for John Steinbeck as he composed ''Of Mice and Men'' and ''The Grapes of Wrath''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Benson|first1=Jackson J.|title=John Steinbeck, Writer|date=1984|publisher=Penguin|isbn=978-0-14-014417-8|pages=295, 320, 349, 360. 362}}</ref>

Henry Miller wrote in his book ''The Air-Conditioned Nightmare'' that L. C. Powell, "a humble, modest librarian at U.C.L.A." was (apart from Ed Ricketts) the only person whom Miller, during his journey across the United States, found "satisfied with his lot, adjusted to his environment, happy in his work, and representative of all that is best in the American tradition".<ref>{{cite book |last=Miller|first=Henry|date=1945|title=The Air-Conditioned Nightmare|publisher=New Directions|pages=18–19}}</ref>

Miller also credited Powell for the suggestion that led him to write "The Books In My Life", and that work is dedicated to Powell.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dubois |first1=Betty Lou |last2=Miller |first2=Henry |date=1953 |title=The Books in My Life |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40092007 |journal=Books Abroad |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=198 |doi=10.2307/40092007 |jstor=40092007 |issn=0006-7431|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Selected works== *{{cite journal | last = Powell | first = Lawrence Clark | title = The Functions of Rare Books | journal = College & Research Libraries | volume = 1 | issue = 1 | pages = 97–103 | date = December 1939 | url = https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/9772 | doi = 10.5860/crl_01_01_97 | access-date = April 24, 2026 | hdl = 2142/31360 | hdl-access = free }} * {{cite book |last=Powell |first=Lawrence Clark |title=Islands of Books |date=1951 |publisher=Ward Ritchie Press |location=Los Angeles}} * ''The Alchemy of Books'' (1954) * {{cite book |last=Powell |first=Lawrence Clark |title=The Alchemy of Books: And Other Essays and Addresses on Books & Writers |date=1954 |publisher=Ward Ritchie Press |location=Los Angeles}} * {{cite book |last=Powell |first=Lawrence Clark |title=Robinson Jeffers: The Man and His Work |date=1934 |publisher=Primavera Press |location=Los Angeles}} * ''Philosopher Pickett'' * ''Land of Fiction'' * ''Heart of the Southwest'' * ''A Southwestern Century'' * ''The Malibu'' (with W.W. Robinson) * {{cite book |last=Powell |first=Lawrence Clark |title=A Passion for Books |date=1958 |publisher=World Publishing Company |location=Cleveland}} * ''Books in My Baggage'' (1960) * ''The Little Package'' (1964) * ''The Blue Train'' (1977) * ''The River Between'' (1979) * ''Southwestern Book Trails'' (1982) * ''Eucalyptus Fair'' (1992) * ''California Classics: The Creative Literature of the Golden State'' (1971) * ''Photographs of the Southwest'' (1976) (with Ansel Adams) * {{cite book |last=Powell |first=Lawrence Clark |title=Fortune & Friendship: An Autobiography |date=1968 |publisher=R. R. Bowker Company |location=New York}} * ''Life Goes On: Twenty More Years of Fortune and Friendship'' (1986) * ''Winter Crossing 1952 - Travel Notes from a Bygone era'' (1986)

==Notes== {{reflist}}

==External links== * ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120326112036/http://southwest.library.arizona.edu/swcent/swcent.html A Southwestern Century: A Bibliography of One Hundred Books of Non Fiction about the Southwest]'' chosen and annotated by Lawrence Clark Powell

{{DEFAULTSORT:Powell, Lawrence Clark}} Category:1906 births Category:2001 deaths Category:American literary critics Category:Librarians from Arizona Category:American librarians Category:University of California, Los Angeles staff Category:Occidental College alumni Category:Presidents of the Bibliographical Society of America