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Leatherbound hardcover guestbook from the "Friday Morning Club" of Los Angeles, California, measuring 9.25 x 11.25, signed throughout in ink by hundreds of attendees—highlighted by politicians, artists, writers, journalists, explorers, and royalty—dated from October 5, 1945 to October 21, 1955.
Key signatures are: then-Congressman Richard Nixon and his wife, Patricia R. Nixon (November 14, 1947); Atlas Shrugged author Ayn Rand (November 10, 1950); Prince Peter of Greece and Denmark, and his wife Irene (October 8, 1948); important photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White and tennis legend Alice Marble (January 23, 1953); and fashion photographer and costume designer Cecil Beaton (January 22, 1954).
Other autographs of interest include: Indian freedom fighter and socialist leader Yusuf Meherally, who coined the term 'Quit India'; perennial Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas; journalist Hubert Renfro Knickerbocker, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the Soviet Union; journalist Walter Duranty, who also won a Pulitzer for his reporting on the Soviet Union; Korean-born activist No-Yong Park, a prominent self-proclaimed Chinese immigrant lecturer and writer; painter Nell Walker Warner; painter Orpha Klinker; Burmese singer Ma Than E; photographer and journalist Harrison Forman (who reported from China and interviewed Mao Zedong during WWII), plus his wife Sandra Carlyle Forman; English poet Alfred Noyes; writer and lecturer Lewis Browne; painter Nordica D’Orsay; foreign affairs writer Henry C. Wolfe; economist Stuart Chase; travel writer and lecturer Burton Holmes; actor and politician Orville Caldwell, first deputy mayor of Los Angeles; author and translator Louis Adamic; polar explorer Hubert Wilkins; actress Mabel Albertson, remembered for her role as Phyllis Stephens in the TV sitcom Bewitched; drama critic and author John Mason Brown; famed private detective Raymond C. Schindler; opera singer Ezio Pinza; composer Meredith Willson; historian Will Durant; adventurer Carveth Wells; illustrator J. Duncan Gleason (with sketch); Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Herbert Agar; art historian James H. Breasted, Jr.; FBI handler James C. Ellsworth; Rear Admiral Ellis M. Zacharias; Ra'ana Liaquat Ali Khan, the first lady of Pakistan; economic journalist Henry Hazlitt; author Florence Ryerson, co-writer of the script for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz; publisher and politician Dwight Griswold; gossip columnist Igor Cassini; journalist Dorothy Thompson, sometimes called the 'First Lady of American Journalism'; newspaper publisher Cornelius Vanderbilt IV; Los Angeles Police Department chief William H. Parker; author Irving Stone; Communist Party infiltrator Herbert Philbrick; and many dozens more.
In overall very good to fine condition, with heavy scuffing and some flaking to the leather exterior.
The Friday Morning Club, founded in 1891 by Caroline Severance, was a prominent women's organization in Los Angeles focused on social reform and civic engagement. It became a hub for progressive causes, including women’s suffrage, education, and community welfare, attracting influential speakers and activists from around the world. The signers here offer a fascinating glimpse into a cross-section of mid-century American culture in Los Angeles, highlighted by a number of famous and influential names.
