Malcolm Margolin founded Heyday Books in 1974 when he wrote, typeset, designed, and distributed East Bay Out, a quirky, personal, affectionate guide to the natural history of the hills and bay shore around Berkeley and Oakland. In these past thirty years, Heyday has published over one hundred books and two successful magazines, News from Native California and Bay Nature, and the company has taken a lead role in dozens of prominent public education programs throughout the state.

Heyday Books: http://www.heydaybooks.com

This year, Heyday Books celebrates thirty years of deepening appreciation for the culture and history of California through its publications. Marking this anniversary is a great change for Heyday Books: the independent publisher has merged with its nonprofit wing, the Clapperstick Institute, to become Heyday Institute, completing its transition to a full-fledged 501 (c)(3) nonprofit enterprise.

The Ohlone Way was included on the San Francisco Chronicle's list of the top one hundred Western nonfiction books of the twentieth century and has been described by critic Pat Holt as a "mini-classic." Margolin's research for the book deepened his interest in California Indian history and culture. Numerous titles in Heyday's catalog reflect this enduring interest, as doesNews from Native California, Heyday's quarterly magazine.

Heyday Books covers a wide range of other topics with the same kind of thoroughness and commitment to quality that it invests in California Indian subjects. Anthologies of poetry, literature, and nonfiction writing encourage a variety of California voices to tell the state's fascinating story. Examples of such collections are California Poetry and Under the Fifth Sun. Other books, including Jewish Life in the American West and Stories Grandma Never Told, chronicle histories of California's diverse ethnic communities.Bear in Mind, The Raccoon Next Door, The Life of an Oak, and other natural history titles encourage the appreciation of California ecology in readers of all ages. Compilations of fine art and photography, including Two-Hearted Oak, Structures of Utility, and At Work: The Art of California Labor show original views of California through the lens of today’s inspiring artists. Heyday has also revived a number of out-of-print classics, such as Mark Twain’s San Francisco,The Shirley Letters,California: A Study of American Character, and John Steinbeck'sThe Harvest Gypsies.

Heyday will honor its thirty years by continuing to discover, nurture, and release into the world objects of depth, true value, and beauty. We will be giving an extended run to our Great Valley Books imprint, which promotes wide appreciation of the diverse Central Valley. The years to come will also show Heyday’s renewed commitment to publishing quality children’s literature with a regional focus, as we hope to publish six to eight children’s titles per year. Under our California Legacy series, Santa Clara University and Heyday Books will be releasing a line of essential writings by some of California’s most important authors, including William Saroyan, John Muir, and Mary Austin.