Man of Letters

When we needed advice on finding a rare book we called Jake Zeitlin. When we wanted a value judgment on printing or binding or typography we asked Zeitlin. When the appetite was nothing larger--or smaller--than wanting to hear the history of books and authors and publishers in Los Angeles, Jake was the man. He knew the world of literature and this city of readers perhaps better than anyone in town. Zeitlin and Ver Brugge, the bookshop that looks like a barn on La Cienega, was a cracker barrel for conversation and contemplation in a community otherwise famous for sprawl and slogan.

Jacob Zeitlin died last weekend; he quite enjoyed his own 84 years, but he was also attached--by passion and by business--to the science and literature of centuries. He was a library that walked, a library that lent its wisdom freely to the collective curiosity of a city always more learned than it looked.