Mills College, Center for the Book ~ California

Salon at Larkmead
By Drew Sparks and Sally Kellman
1999. Edition of 250.

8.5 x 10"; 144 pages. Letterpress printed in three colors by Peter Koch inQuadraat and Libra typefaces. Illustrated with 48 duo-tone reproductions of nineteenth-century photographs and several four-color ephemeral pieces. Quarterbound in Japanese cloth and printed paper over boards.

Chronicles a life of privilege in California's framed Napa Valley at its moment of transition from wilderness to garden. Wine estates and fashionable early resort spas grace this late nineteenth-century landscape. Hosting this bohemian salon was San Francisco's legendary Lillie Hitchcock Coit. Martha Hitchcock, Lillie's Mother, captured this life in her diaries. Sparks and Kellman have selected, edited and arranged the diaries into twelve chapters to follow the seasons of the year. Not exactly a history, the narrative seeks the gesture and the odd detail that evoke a particular world. Diary excerpts are supported by brightly interpreted archival photographs, newspaper accounts, facsimile letters and poem from frequent guests Joaquin Miller, Ambrose Bierce, and Porter Garnett, recipes from Coit's cooking journey and Louisiana lottery ticket.
$275

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