Marylin Hudson Collection on Round Table West

Born Marylin Pawlak in 1933, Marylin Hudson grew up between South America and Southern California's San Fernando Valley. She attended UCLA and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science in 1954, moving on to act as Director of Hunt Foods' kitchen in Fullerton, CA. A voracious reader, Hudson spent many years writing book reviews for the Orange County, CA based Orange Coast magazine, often reading at least one book per day.

Known as a "very warm and funny person," Hudson played a crucial and lasting role in the literary world during the second half of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first century. Remembered for her humorous and satirical take on astrology, Hudson was deemed 'irreplaceable,' and heralded as especially supportive of local authors and reading. Penning her first book in 2003, You Were Born Under a Funny Sign, and second in 2008, Hudson's acclaim in the book world continued to grow.

Possibly Hudson's most influential contribution was her co-founding of Round Table West, the largest continuous book and author gathering in the nation. Run by Hudson and her co-founder, Margaret Burk, Round Table West modeled itself after the famed Algonquin Round Table, and embodied all things literary, including book readings, signings, author talks, and a mission to spread reading and literacy skills. Speakers at these monthly luncheons included literati from throughout the times, including Ray Bradbury, Walter Cronkite, Bob Hope, Michael Crichton, and Maya Angelou, amongst many other celebrated names.

Throughout its thirty-year tenure, this non-profit organized countless donations of books to prisons, halfway houses, underfunded libraries, and local institutions through their Books for the Bookless program, helping to provide reading materials for those that would not otherwise have access. This endeavor included donations by such noted authors and publishers as Sidney Sheldon, Richard Paul Evans, Larry Gelbart, Donald Spoto, and others.

Round Table West discontinued its monthly luncheons in 2007, its closing attributed to a decline in the reading of books. Marylin Hudson passed away in August 2010, leaving behind an estimated fifteen thousand books in her home.