THE PLAN OF CREATION

Near fine (covers nice with gilt on spine very bright & unrubbed); contents clean & tight). A fantastic copy! 12mo., embossed black cloth with gilt titles on the spine; 280 pages First Edition. Inscribed (in pencil) by Widney on the front pastedown: ?Compliments of the Author, R.M. Widney.? Also inscribed (again in pencil) on the front endpaper: ?Early L.A. Imprint. Comp. of author.? Robert Maclay Widney [1838-1929] was a real estate promoter and attorney. He was, more than anyone else, responsible for setting into motion the events that led to the founding of the University of Southern California. Los Angeles was a rough-and-tumble frontier town in the early 1870s, when a group of public-spirited citizens led by Widney first dreamed of establishing a university in the region. It took nearly a decade for this vision to become a reality but, in 1879, Widney formed a board of trustees and secured a donation of 308 lots of land for the university- the seeds of financial support for the nascent institution. When the University of Southern California was founded, he was elected the first president of its board of directors and was one of the original trustees of the endowment fund. Widney was instrumental in a number of advances in Southern California. He helped bring the Southern Pacific Railroad to Los Angeles, establish the city?s first horse-drawn trolley and organize the first chamber of commerce. He also helped form the Los Angeles County Bar Association and incorporate the city?s first light and power company. Widney was a leader of the Methodist Episcopal Church and wrote ?The Plan Of Creation,? where his rigorous intellect strived to understand religion through the prism of science and see the design of the divine through natural laws and science. The ?Plan Of Creation? is a rare book, especially signed by the author, and is an early Los Angeles-area imprint. Copyright date is 1878 but publication was in 1881.