Malcolm Margolin

Malcolm Margolin (born October 27, 1940) is an author, publisher, and former executive director of Heyday Books, an independent nonprofit publisher and cultural institution in Berkeley, California. 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 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 San Francisco Chronicle, and the Los Angeles Times.

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 and Harvard University, where he earned a degree in English Literature in 1964. He met his wife Rina while attending Harvard; she was a psychology major at Radcliffe College.

After college he lived in Puerto Rico (1964–1966) and New York City's Lower East Side (1966–1968). He visited Yosemite National Park 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 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).

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, 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.

In 2012 he received the chairman's Commendation from the National Endowment for the Humanities, 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