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Finding Aid to the Ward Ritchie Papers, ca. 1930-1978
Press coll. Archives Ritchie
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Description
The Ward Ritchie Press collection consists primarily of job packets, typescripts, manuscripts, lectures, correspondence, photographs,
ephemera, sketches, page and galley proofs, poetry, and some personal items.
Background
Ward Ritchie was born in 1905 in Los Angeles, and grew up in a series of residences in the Los Angeles and Pasadena areas.
His father was in the pharmaceutical trade. He attended Marengo Avenue School and Occidental College, transferring to Stanford,
University of the South, and back to Occidental again. After a brief try at law school at USC he decided to make a career
the book arts, influenced by a reading of T.J. Cobden-Sanderson's Journals. By examining examples of fine printing, mainly at the Huntington Library, he learned the elements of book design, and a semester
at Frank Wiggins Trade School gave him some technical knowledge. He began printing in 1929. The next year he talked himself
into an "apprenticeship" with François Louis Schmied, the French art-deco designer, illustrator, and printer. After four months
with Schmied he returned to Los Angeles and a brief job with bookseller Jake Zeitlin.
Restrictions
Restrictions on Use
Copyright has not been assigned to the William Andrews Clark emorial Library, UCLA. All requests for permission to publish
or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Librarian. Permission for publication is
given on behalf of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include
or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.