Huntington Library

Japan's Grand Master of the Phoenix Cloud visited Los Angeles four decades ago and dedicated an exquisite teahouse to the public in the hopes of popularizing the sublime art of tea ceremony in the West. Trained as a kamikaze pilot during World War II, the grand master saw tea as a way to promote peace, share Japan's cultural treasures and repair a national image battered by wartime militarism. The 400-year-old art expresses the values of harmony, respect, purity and tranquillity through the highly refined and ritualized making and serving of tea. But the ceremony failed to catch on much beyond a small circle of Japanese Americans.

This week I saw a work of art at the Huntington Library that set me off on a journey — in search of a ghost from L.A.'s past. It was a 1932 print by Paul Landacre, an L.A. resident considered by many the master American wood engraver of his day. Landacre etched two large trees looming over a curving road and an empty stone staircase. It's a landscape with the feel of a country retreat, even though it's really a hillside lot in what is now Echo Park. Landacre and his wife, Margaret, lived there for nearly 40 years, until their deaths in 1963, according to the gallery display.

Bonsai masters will share their art and knowledge at this weekend's Bonsai-a-Thon . There will be demonstrations, exhibits and prize drawings, as well as a bonsai auction at 3 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. Register in advance for workshops, offered for both adults and children. Huntington Library, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. $20. 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Sat.-Sun. (626) 405-2100; www .huntington.org .

Dickens at Huntington In a bit of news that may elicit a chorus of "Bah, humbug!" from disappointed rival collectors, the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens said Tuesday it has acquired a cache of 35 letters that Charles Dickens wrote from about 1838 to 1869. Highlights, the San Marino museum said, include missives to Dickens' best-known illustrator, Hablot Knight Browne (a.k.a. "Phiz"), and to poet Robert Lytton. Among the letters are Dickens' instructions to Browne about how a scene in a women's hat shop in "Nicholas Nickleby" should look.

Paul M. Zall, a research scholar at the Huntington Library in San Marino and a professor at Cal State L.A. who examined the lives and humor of early American presidents and leaders, often using their own words, has died. He was 87. Zall died Dec. 16 of natural causes at his home in South Pasadena, said his son Andy. "No one at the Huntington was more helpful to me," said Ronald C. White Jr., a fellow at the library. White, who has written three books about President Lincoln, including 2009's "A. Lincoln: A Biography," said Zall over the years shared with him notes and expertise, an example of his "generosity of spirit.

Frances Lasker Brody, a philanthropist, arts advocate and collector who influenced the development of Los Angeles' cultural life as a founding benefactor of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and later as a guiding patron of the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Gardens in San Marino, has died. She was 93. Brody died Thursday at her Holmby Hills home after a long illness, said her son, Christopher. Known for her fierce intellect, strong opinions freely shared and unflagging sense of style, Brody, the daughter of advertising titan Albert Lasker, used her life of privilege to bring art to Southern California.

"That was the first part of my life," says Jay T. Last, a founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and leader of the team that developed the integrated circuit for commercial use. When he retired from the computer field, he happily found other things to absorb his restless mind. "This is the second part." At the Huntington Library's Boone Gallery, Last has just had his first tour through an exhibition featuring a collection he's spent more than three decades assembling -- "The Color Explosion: Nineteenth Century American Lithography from the Jay T. Last Collection" (through Feb. 22)

"Central Avenue and Beyond: The Harlem Renaissance in Los Angeles" focuses on life along the storied thoroughfare that once was the heart of black L.A. But the exhibit's organizers couldn't resist illustrating ways African American culture flourished in other parts of the city as well. "We hope to open people's eyes a little," says Sue Hodson, curator of literary manuscripts at the Huntington Library in San Marino, where the show opens this weekend. "Everyone tends to think the Harlem Renaissance took place in one spot, however, Los Angeles was among many urban centers teeming with activity."

Los Angeles-based architectural photographer Maynard L. Parker captured postwar suburban homes designed by noted architects such as Paul Williams, Richard Neutra and Cliff May for Architectural Digest, Sunset and more. Now, Parker's archive of nearly 58,000 photographs, negatives and other materials -- donated to the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in 1996 -- is accessible through the Huntington's website using the keywords "Maynard Parker." About 6,000 of the photographer's images have been uploaded to the database so far. Archivists will continue digitizing the collection with the goal of making them all electronically available.

Long the stepchild of a Eurocentric art world, American art is finding new favor at home as a growing number of institutions showcase work from Colonial times to World War II. Today, the Huntington in San Marino will join the Metropolitan Museum of Art and museums around the country when it unveils a renovated and expanded gallery devoted to American art.