Malcolm Margolin (born October 27, 1940) is an author, publisher, and former executive director of
Heyday Books
Heyday is an independent nonprofit publisher based in Berkeley, California.
Heyday was founded by Malcolm Margolin in 1974 when he wrote, typeset, designed, and distributed ''The East Bay Out'', a guide to the natural history of the hills and b ...
, an independent nonprofit publisher and cultural institution in
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...
. From his founding of Heyday in 1974 until his retirement at the end of 2015, he oversaw the publication of several hundred books and the creation of two quarterly magazines: ''News from Native California,'' devoted to the history and ongoing cultural concerns of California Indians, and ''Bay Nature,'' devoted to the natural history of the San Francisco Bay Area. In the fall of 2017, he established a new enterprise, the California Institute for Community, Art, and Nature (California ICAN) to continue and expand upon the work that he began more than forty years ago.
Margolin is the author/editor of several books including ''The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area'', named by the ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...
'' as one of the hundred most important books of the twentieth century by a western writer. His essays and articles have appeared in a number of periodicals including ''
The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...
,'' the ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...
'', and the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
''.
Early life and education
Margolin was born in Boston, Massachusetts on October 27, 1940 to a Lithuanian mother and an American father.
He attended
Boston Latin School
The Boston Latin School is a public exam school in Boston, Massachusetts. It was established on April 23, 1635, making it both the oldest public school in the British America and the oldest existing school in the United States. Its curriculum f ...
and
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, where he earned a degree in
English Literature
English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...
in 1964.
He met his wife Rina while attending Harvard; she was a psychology major at
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...
.
After college he lived in
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
(1964–1966) and New York City's
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets.
Traditionally an im ...
(1966–1968).
He visited
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...
in the summer of 1967. In 1969, he moved with Rina to California.
Career
Margolin has lectured widely and has served as advisor and mentor to many other publishers. In addition to founding Heyday (1974), News from Native California (1987), and Bay Nature (2001), he co-founded the
Alliance for California Traditional Arts (1997), an organization devoted to California folk arts, and has served on its board since its beginning. In 2001, he co-founded Inlandia Institute, a literary center in Riverside, California.
He currently serves on the Publication Committee of the
Book Club of California
The Book Club of California is a non-profit membership organization of bibliophiles based in San Francisco, operating continuously since 1912. Its mission is to support the history and art of the book, including fine printing related to the hist ...
and devotes time and effort to a number of environmental, cultural, and social justice organizations and causes.
Personal life
He has lived in Berkeley, California since the late 1960s,
where he and his wife, Rina, have raised three children: Reuben (1970), Sadie (1974), and Jacob (1980).
Bibliography
Books authored by Margolin include:
*
*
*
*
*
*Margolin, Malcolm; Linsteadt, Sylvia. ''Wonderments of the East Bay.'' Berkeley: Heyday. 2014. .
*Bancroft, Kim. ''The Heyday of Malcolm Margolin'': ''The Damn Good Times of a Fiercely Independent Publisher''. Berkeley: Heyday. 2014. .
*La Perouse, Jean-Francois de Galaup; Edited, introduced, with extensive commentary by Malcolm Margolin. ''Life in a California Mission: Monterey in 1786.'' Berkeley: Heyday. 1989. .
*Margolin, Malcolm. ''Deep Hanging Out'': ''Wanderings and Wonderment in Native California.'' Berkeley: Heyday. 2021. .
Awards
He has received many honors including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the San Francisco Bay Area Book Reviewers Association, a Community Leadership Award from the
San Francisco Foundation San Francisco Foundation is a San Francisco Bay Area philanthropy organization. It is one of the largest community foundations
Community foundations (CFs) are instruments of civil society designed to pool donations into a coordinated investment and ...
, a Gold Medal from the Commonwealth Club of California, an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, and a Cultural Freedom Award
from the
Lannan Foundation
The Lannan Literary Awards are a series of awards and literary fellowships given out in various fields by the Lannan Foundation. Established in 1989, the awards are meant "to honor both established and emerging writers whose work is of exceptional ...
.
In 2012 he received the chairman's Commendation from the
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
,
the second person in the United States to be so honored.
* 2001 – American Book Award for Publishing/Editing, Before Columbus Foundation
* Award for Organizational Excellence, American Association of State and Local History
* California Council for the Promotion of History Award
* California Indian Health Services Award
* "California State Assembly Resolution" honoring Heyday
* Carey McWilliams Award for Lifetime Achievement, California Studies Association
* Chairman's Commendation, National Endowment for the Humanities
* Cultural Freedom Award, Lannan Foundation
* Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists
* Fred Cody Award, Bay Area Book Reviewers Association
* Gerbode Fellowship
* Helen Crocker Russell Award for Community Leadership, San Francisco Foundation
* The Hubert Howe Bancroft Award, The Bancroft Library
* Martin Baumhoff Award for Achievement by the Society for California Archaeology
* The Oscar Lewis Award for Contributions to Western History, Book Club of California
* Presidential Commendation, The Society for California Archaeology
* Publishing Award, California Horticultural Society
* Special recognition for leadership in the arts, California Arts Council
References
External links
* California ICAN (http://www.californiaican.org)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Margolin, Malcolm
Historians of Native Americans
American nature writers
American male non-fiction writers
American book editors
American book publishing company founders
American magazine editors
American magazine publishers (people)
American magazine founders
Writers from Berkeley, California
Businesspeople from Berkeley, California
Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area
American Book Award winners
Harvard University alumni
1940 births
Living people
Jewish American writers
20th-century American Jews
21st-century American Jews
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American male writers
American people of Lithuanian descent