R. B. Kitaj (1932–2007) is most often remembered as a quintessential postwar figurative painter—he coined the term “School of London” to define his work and that of his close friends David Hockney, Francis Bacon, and Lucian Freud. Yet he was as fascinated with literature as he was with art. Inspired by the writings of Walter Benjamin and Marcel Duchamp, Kitaj created a collection of screen prints that replicated books of personal importance to him along with books that symbolized essential political and cultural themes of the 20th century, such as the Spanish Civil War and the Holocaust. Forty-four of these works are now on display at the Huntington Art Gallery. Other authors whose books he chose? George Gissing, W. B. Yeats, James Agee, Isaac Babel. —Lucy Horowitz