November 4, 1902 [Racine, Wisconsin]–August 30, 1987 [Los Angeles]
Zeitlin was born in Racine, Wisconsin. He moved with his family to Fort Worth, Texas in his childhood and to Los Angeles in 1925. He opened his first bookshop in 1928 on Hope Street near 6th Street in downtown Los Angeles, and over the years moved his shop a number of times, its final location being in a converted barn on La Cienega Boulevard. He founded the Primavera Press, to produce fine printed books, and was a co-founder of the Rounce & Coffin Club, which supported and encouraged fine printing in Southern California. He and his many friends and associates, known as the “Zeitlin circle,” were a significant force in the cultural and intellectual life of Los Angeles. In 1963, he testified in a California Supreme Court obscenity hearing on Henry Miller’s novel Tropic of Cancer. He was also one of the first people to exhibit the woodcuts of fellow Echo Park resident Paul Landacre and the photographs of Edward Weston. Zeitlin also edited Opinion, a short-lived but influential Angeleno intellectual journal.
