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 ''

'', 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