Ward Ritchie Press

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Ward Ritchie trained as a printer at the Frank Wiggins Trade School in Los Angeles and under the French printer François Louis-Schmied in Paris. He founded the Ward Ritchie Press in Los Angeles in 1932. Like other Californian fine presses of the period, such as the Grabhorn Press, some of the Ward Ritchie Press's work appeared under the imprint of other presses and publishers, though it also produced work under its own imprint. Gregg Anderson, one of Ritchie's chief collaborators, was killed in the Second World War, but the the enterprise continued under the name of Anderson, Ritchie & Simon, with Ritchie finally retiring in 1974.

Special Collections has the following items printed at or published by the Grabhorn Press:

  • Aller, Simeon. The Russians Said It First: A Heritage of Proverbs. Los Angeles: 1963. PN6505.S5 R82
  • Conrad, Joseph. The Nigger of the Narcissus. Los Angeles: 1965. PZ3.C764 Ni
  • Conrad, Joseph. Youth: Typhoon; The End of the Tether. Los Angeles: 1972. PR6005.O4 A15 1972
  • Guillén, Nicolás. Cuba Libre: Poems. Los Angeles: 1948. PQ7389.G84 C83 1948
  • Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. Fine Books: An Exhibition of Written and Printed Books Selected for Excellence of Design, Craftsmanship and Material. San Marino: 1936. Z121 .H52 1936
  • Hyde, Laurence. Southern Cross: A Novel of the South Seas Told in Wood Engravings. Los Angeles: 1951. NE1215.H9 K4 1951
  • Jin, Jian. A Chinese printing manual, 1776. Los Angeles: 1954. Z244.A2 C515 1954
  • London, Jack. The Call of the Wild. Los Angeles: 1960. PS3523.Q46 C3 1960
  • Lucretius. De Rerum Natura. Los Angeles: 1957. PA6483.E5 L4 1957
  • Macfarlan, Allan A. American Indian Legends. Los Angeles: 1968. E98.F6 M13
  • Ransom, Will. Kelmscott, Doves and Ashendene: The Private Press Credos. Los Angeles: The Typophiles, 1952. Z231 .R35 1952
  • Ritchie, Ward. The Ward Ritchie Press, and Anderson, Ritchie & Simon. Los Angeles: 1961. Z1217.W27 R5
  • Stevenson, Robert Louis. The beach of Falesá. Los Angeles: 1956.

Special Collections has the following secondary resources relating to the Ward Ritchie Press:

  • Ritchie, Ward. The Ward Ritchie Press, and Anderson, Ritchie & Simon. Los Angeles: 1961. Z1217.W27 R5