Heyday Books Turns 40 With A Real Page-turner On Malcolm Margolin

Heyday Books turns 40 with a real page-turner on Malcolm Margolin Since the first carton of newly printed books landed on a Berkeley sidewalk in August 1974, Heyday Books has been telling stories about California that might otherwise never be known: intimate descriptions of an Ohlone Indian village by San Francisco Bay; stories about Allensworth, the African American utopian community that sprung up in the Central Valley in the early 20th century; Joaquin Miller's accounts of life among the early settlers of far Northern California - to name a few. In the book, Margolin's children, Reuben, Sadie and Jake, remember growing up in rented houses full of books - boxes and boxes of them filling bathrooms and hallways. Margolin was fired from an early job, with the East Bay Regional Park District, for refusing to wear a uniform but was able to fall back on a $10,000 advance from Houghton Mifflin for a how-to book on restoring wildlands. In the beginning, Rina, who speaks three languages, helped with editing and proofreading in their home office, later moving on to teach ESL and run summer camps. Since its inception, Margolin's infectious laugh has been the ongoing soundtrack at Heyday. [...] he'll be up early, the first in the Heyday office, tucking notes into people's boxes to thank them and encourage them in the beautiful books they are making. The nonprofit status also formalized Margolin's commitment to publishing as a cultural, intellectual and aesthetic pursuit, not a quest for unit sales and profits. Margolin looks for two qualities when hiring a new staff member: intelligence and a sense of humor. What it all comes down to are the stories told in what Margolin calls "the kitchen voice," the authentic, unselfconscious voice that provides a window into the real lives of people who've contributed to our history and culture.