Our Mission
Heyday Institute occupies a unique niche in the publishing world, specializing in books that foster an understanding of California history, literature, art, environment, social issues, and culture. Our commitment is to enhance California's rich cultural heritage by providing a platform for writers, poets, and other artists, scholars, and storytellers who help keep this diverse legacy alive. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization serving a wide range of people and audiences, with a commitment to providing a platform for those who help keep California's diverse literary legacy alive. Heyday publishes books of quality and distinction that promote the cultural and natural landscape of California, emphasizing voices of previously unheard authors and artists, as well as overlooked geographic regions, to more fully present the state's literary wealth.
We also sponsor over 250 events a year (including readings, panels, exhibitions, lectures, etc.) to promote our books and our authors, often in partnership with many other cultural and educational organizations. To find out more about our events, please visit our Events page.
History of Heyday Institute
Heyday Institute was founded by Malcolm Margolin in 1974 when he wrote, typeset, designed, and distributed The East Bay Out, a quirky, personal, affectionate guide to the natural history of the hills and bayshore around Berkeley and Oakland. Out of this modest first effort a major California cultural enterprise has taken shape. Heyday Books publishes around twenty-five books a year, founded two successful magazines--News from Native California and Bay Nature--and has taken a lead role in dozens of prominent public education programs throughout the state.
Our thirtieth anniversary in 2004 marked a great change for Heyday Books: the independent publisher merged with its nonprofit wing, Clapperstick Institute, to become Heyday Institute, completing its transition to a full-fledged 501(c)(3) nonprofit enterprise. For a list of our funders and supporters, please see our donors.
If you would like to find out more about how you can support Heyday Institute--and receive lots of terrific benefits--please visit our Friends of Heyday page.
Our Partnerships
From the start, Heyday has worked in partnership with many of California's leading cultural organizations. We cofounded California Historical Society Press with the California Historical Society and together have published several distinguished books. Heyday also has produced books in conjunction with the California Council for the Humanities; the California State Library; the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley; the Oakland Museum of California; the Commonwealth Club of California; Santa Clara University; the California Academy of Sciences; the Japanese American National Museum; the Yosemite Association; and many others.
Working with the California Legacy Project at Santa Clara University, we produce our California Legacy series, which serves to preserve and promote our state's literary and cultural heritage. Our books on the Inland Empire focus on the inland region of southern California, and we recently formed a partnership with the Inlandia Institute at the Riverside Public Library. Our Great Valley Books imprint promotes wide appreciation of the diverse Central Valley. In 2008, we began publishing books on Yosemite National Park and the Sierra Nevada for the Yosemite Association.
Heyday's Board of Directors
Michael McCone, Chairman
Susan Ives, Vice Chair
Lee Swenson, Secretary
Guy Lampard, Treasurer
Barbara Boucke
Peter Dunckel
Theresa Harlan
Leanne Hinton
Nancy Hom
Karyn Flynn
Bruce Kelley
Marty Krasney
Katharine Livingston
Jeff Lustig
Jim Swinerton
Lisa Van Cleef
Lynne Withey
Thanks to Our Donors
We are grateful for the generous funding we've received for our publications and programs during the past year from foundations and more than three hundred and fifty individual donors. Major supporters include:
Anonymous; Audubon California; BayTree Fund; B.C.W. Trust III; S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation; Fred & Jean Berensmeier; Joan Berman; Book Club of California; Butler Koshland Fund; California State Automobile Association; California State Coastal Conservancy; California State Library; Candelaria Fund; Columbia Foundation; Community Futures Collective; Compton Foundation, Inc.; Malcolm Cravens Foundation; Lawrence Crooks; Judith & Brad Croul; Laura Cunningham; David Elliott; Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria; Fleishhacker Foundation; Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation; Richard & Rhoda Goldman Fund; Marion E. Greene; Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund; Walter & Elise Haas Fund; Charlene C. Harvey; Leanne Hinton; James Irvine Foundation; Matthew Kelleher; Marty & Pamela Krasney; Guy Lampard & Suzanne Badenhoop; LEF Foundation; Robert Levitt; Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Fund; Michael McCone; National Endowment for the Arts; National Park Service; Philanthropic Ventures Foundation; Alan Rosenus; Mrs. Paul Sampsell; Deborah Sanchez; San Francisco Foundation; William Saroyan Foundation; Melissa T. Scanlon; Seaver Institute; Contee Seely; Sandy Cold Shapero; Skirball Foundation; Stanford University; Orin Starn; Swinerton Family Fund; Thendara Foundation; Susan Swig Watkins; Tom White; Harold & Alma White Memorial Fund; and Dean Witter Foundation.
