Dawson's Book Shop was a bookstore and small press that operated in Los Angeles beginning in 1905. Founded by
Ernest Dawson
Ernest Dawson (1 December 1882, in San Antonio, Texas – 15 November 1947, in Los Angeles) was an American antiquarian bookseller, small press publisher, mountain climber, and Sierra Club president.
Ernest Dawson, born in Texas, moved in 1885 wit ...
(d. 1947), it was started as a new bookstore, but Dawson soon shifted his attention to rare books, and was known from that time on as a rare book dealer.
The business was taken over after his death by his sons
Glen Dawson and Muir Dawson. Dawson's specialized in
rare books
Book collecting is the collecting of books, including seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever books are of interest to a given collector. The love of books is ''bibliophilia'', and someo ...
related to California and the West. Today, the shop operates online under the ownership of Michael Dawson.
Miniature Books
Starting in 1949, the shop began publishing books, and issued 370 volumes,
including a significant number of
miniature books
A miniature book is a very small book. Standards for what may be termed a miniature rather than just a small book have changed through time. Today, most collectors consider a book to be miniature only if it is 3 inches or smaller in height, wid ...
on a wide variety of topics.
The books often involved the work of printers Karen Dawson, Muir Dawson, and William Cheney; illustrator Tom Neal; and bookbinder Bela Blau.
Books produced at the press were sometimes published under different imprints, including Seahorse Press and Dawson Books.
Individual volumes were at times printed abroad by presses in Budapest, Hungary; Mexico; and China.
References
Official
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Bookstores established in the 20th century
Bookstores of the United States
Retail companies established in 1905
American companies established in 1905
Book publishing companies based in California
Bookstores in California
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