Declared one of the most beautiful libraries in the world, Los Angeles Central Library is a monument to fine architecture and artwork'and, of course, its renowned collection of the written word and its world-class special collections. Los Angeles Central Library and its history are as fascinating as any of the storied volumes found on its shelves. City leaders fought for decades to build a landmark structure and later battled to demolish it, yet generations of Angelenos have watched the building stand tall, survive fires, and endure into the twenty-first century, ready to face a high-tech society that thought it could live without books.Year after year Central Library proves its essential place in the heart of Los Angeles. And each year it becomes more important.In Los Angeles Central Library: A History of its Art and Architecture, the Library's beautiful building, paintings, murals, sculptures, decor, and storied tile work are captured by the lens of renowned Hollywood photographer and graphic designer Arnold Schwartzman. And its remarkable story of dramatic visuals and civic involvement is chronicled by architectural historian Stephen Gee. Gee tells the story of the creative minds that shaped the structure: architects Bertram Goodhue, Carleton M. Winslow, Hardy Holzman and Pfeiffer Associates; sculptor Lee Lawrie; muralists Dean Cornwell and Albert Herter; painter Julian Garnsey, philosopher Hartley Burr Alexander, and many more. Schwartzman shows it all in page after page of dramatic color, all juxtaposed with historic images and blueprints, many never before published.

In the most comprehensive investigation of the Los Angeles Public Library’s early history and architectural genesis ever undertaken, Kenneth Breisch chronicles the institution’s first six decades, from its founding as a private library association in 1872 through the completion of the iconic Central Library building in 1933. During this time, the library evolved from an elite organization ensconced in two rooms in downtown LA into one of the largest public library systems in the United States—with architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue’s building, a beloved LA landmark, as its centerpiece. Goodhue developed a new style, fully integrating the building’s sculptural and epigraphic program with its architectural forms to express a complex iconography. Working closely with sculptor Lee Oskar Lawrie and philosopher Hartley Burr Alexander, he created a great civic monument that, combined with the library’s murals, embodies an overarching theme: the light of learning. “A building should read like a book, from its title entrance to its alley colophon,” wrote Alexander—a narrative approach to design that serves as a key to understanding Goodhue’s architectural gem. Breisch draws on a wealth of primary source material to tell the story of one of the most important American buildings of the twentieth century and illuminates the formation of an indispensible modern public institution: the American public library.