LARB Classics is a line of forgotten Southern California literature, re-contextualized for a modern audience with introductions by contemporary Los Angeles authors. The first offering is A Stab in the Dark, the earliest Chicano text yet discovered, written by a Mexican journalist while he lived and worked in Los Angeles in the 1910s and early 1920s. Additional titles include The Girl From Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Merton of the Movies, by Harry Leon Wilson — Gertrude Stein’s favorite novel of the 1920s — and Souls for Sale by Rupert Hughes. Many of the Classics will be “genre” books, or book by genre authors. LARB Classics aims to illuminate and celebrate the literary culture of Los Angeles, informing our understanding of LA as an intellectual city with a rich literary legacy.
