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Contra Costa Times (Friday, September 3, 2004)
After 30 years, publisher is still in his Heyday: The small press, which began in 1974 in founder’s Berkeley home, chronicles California history, culture
By Dan Laidman
Heyday Books founder Malcolm Margolin likens each book that passes through his small publishing house to a self-made world.
"Nobody will ever realize what goes into a book," he said. "Each of them presents a risk, each of them presents an opportunity, each a separate gamble."
Book by book, gamble by gamble, Margolin pushed ahead through 30 years. The small press he founded out of his Berkeley home in 1974 is now celebrating three decades of chronicling California history and culture.
To page through the latest Heyday catalog is to take an off-the-beaten-path, multicultural tour of the Golden State’s history. A very small sampling of recent titles includes: Dream Songs and Ceremony: Reflections on Traditional California Indian Dance, The Golden Game: The Story of California Baseball, and The Land of Orange Groves and Jails: Upton Sinclair’s California. Heyday is also the publisher of The Raccoon Next Door, a guide to urban wildlife by Times columnist Gary Bogue and artist Chuck Todd.
Heyday’s longevity is rare among upstart publishing houses, said Karin Taylor, executive director of the Small Press Center in New York.
"I think to survive for 30 years is a terrific accomplishment," she said.
Margolin characterizes it a little differently.
"Thirty years of figuring out how to get past the next week," he said.
Not prone to nostalgia, Margolin has been more focused on the structural change he hopes will prepare his business for the next 30 years. The 63-year-old decided that by going non-profit, Heyday would be better prepared to outlive his eventual departure.
That does not mean Margolin plans to retire anytime soon, though. In order to retire, he would first need to have a job.
"I’m functionally unemployable," he said. "I don’t have a job; I have a life."
A passion for self-sufficiency (and a disdain for bosses) sparked Margolin to create Heyday in 1974 after he published a guide to the natural history of the East Bay. He remembers dozens of similar presses that sprouted in the wake of the free speech and anti-war movements in homes stacked with light tables, wax machines and endless boxes of books.
"The era I started in there was individual enterprise," Margolin said. "If you didn’t need much money, if you’re operating it out of the bedroom, if the rents are down, if the kids don’t need too much dental work, you can keep it moving along."
That world changed in the 1980s when so many of Margolin’s peers could no longer afford to pursue their creative work. But immersing himself in the rich subject matter of his books had become Margolin’s life.
"Malcolm, it seems to me, has created an enterprise that’s really built around ideas and values," said Jim Quay, executive director of the California Council of the Humanities. "And they came first."
Quay calls Heyday’s contribution to California culture "immeasurable" because so many of its publications may not have found a home anywhere else. Non-commercial as many of Heyday’s intensely regional books are, the local focus has actually helped the company’s longevity, Margolin said.
"If we were doing general lit, we’d be at the bottom of the food chain," Margolin said. "With California history, art and ethnic studies, we get the best of the genre."
Margolin is quick to point out that Heyday has flourished in Berkeley’s uniquely friendly intellectual climate and publishing market. Over the years he has forged strong ties with small booksellers that share Heyday’s community spirit.
"Independent bookstores are important community and cultural resources, and I think his books are important community and cultural resources as well," said Hut Landon, executive director of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association. "It’s a natural partnership, but I think it’s one that he recognized and was proactive in encouraging."
Heyday established a non-profit wing, known as the Clapperstick Institute, in 1997 to draw funding for News from Native California, a magazine devoted to California Indian communities. As Clapperstick became more prominent within Heyday’s operation, Margolin realized that it might present the most sustainable future for the business, which has grown into a 15-person, $1.5 million-a-year company.
Funding sources such as large foundations tend to prefer the clear organizational structures of 501(c)(3) non-profits to the idiosyncratic way Margolin ran the business. And while it has been a major personal change for him to give up ownership of the company, his one major asset, and to put his trust in a board of directors, he is growing to like the stability, too.
"You know what we had this year?" he asked. "A budget! It’s the most amazing thing in the world."
Dan Laidman covers small business and professional services. Reach him at (925) 943-8263 or dlaidman@cctimes.com
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