The hype for the Rare Books L.A. book fair at Union Station felt bigger this year, thanks to the event’s partnership with Netflix to promote Guillermo Del Toro’s “Frankenstein” film.
Still, no amount of celebrity razzle-dazzle could distract from the annual stars of the show: cases and tables filled and stacked with antiquarian books, art, maps and other rare and curious items from dozens of book dealers.
Hundreds of people filled the hall at the main entrance of Union Station over the past weekend to peruse books older than their great-grandparents and trace their fingers over the signatures of their long-dead favorite authors; signatures that were safely stored within the covers of surviving first editions of their novels.
There were also plenty of rare items related to L.A. and L.A. authors, including sports memorabilia and booths featuring different first-edition books, some of which were signed by Octavia Butler. Best of all, yours truly got to sit next to Dr. Peter Weller for a brief moment while he awaited his turn to speak about his journey from working in Hollywood to writing his first book, “Leon Battista Alberti in Exile” (yep, Robocop has a PhD!).
Below, in no particular order, are photos of a few rare, interesting, and historical books and ephemera that we found at the book fair this year, along with the stories behind how they were found.