Malcolm Margolin

Published in hardcover for the first time in forty years, two classics of environmental science fiction." One of the most important utopian novels of the twentieth century that still has very important lessons to teach us. It will always convey to perfection the wild optimism of that moment: a feeling we need to recapture, adjusted for our time." —Kim Stanley RobinsonCollected in one handsome volume for the first time, The Complete Ecotopia presents an early classic of environmental science fiction in its entirety. Ecotopia (1975) and Ecotopia Emerging (1981), which paint detailed portraits of a healthier earth and a happier society, became foundational texts for a new wave of environmental activists, and they still contain an abundance of ideas yet to be realized. Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopian saga anticipated climate fiction by more than a decade, sold approximately one million copies and was translated into one dozen languages, and predicted a host of innovations running from C-SPAN to widespread recycling. This edition includes two retrospective essays by the author, as well as an updated foreword by Heyday founder Malcolm Margolin. An important document of utopian ideas from the sixties and seventies, The Complete Ecotopia is also a stimulating read for environmentalists today—one that tells a bold, inventive, and adventurous story.

A chronicle of fifty years of deep hanging out in California’s Indian country!" Deep Hanging Out is a vibrant testament to one man’s commitment to nurturing community and dancing with change." —Terry Tempest WilliamsWriter and publisher Malcolm Margolin has been "deep hanging out"—or immersing himself in a social, informal way—in California's Indian country since the 1970s. This volume collects thirty articles, introductions, and other pieces he wrote about California's diverse Indian country (well over one hundred tribes), drawn mainly from the quarterly magazine he cofounded in 1987, News from Native California. He shares with his readers the experiences, knowledge, and cultural renewal that California Indians have generously shared with him, often after years of friendship, from the erection of a ceremonial enclosure in Northern California—built to fall apart within a generation so that the knowledge of how to construct one is always current—to a visit by aboriginal Hawaiians in diplomatic recognition of native Southern Californian tribes. He draws on both archives and interviews with elders in longer reports about leadership traditions, pedagogical techniques, and conservation practices in various parts of the state—fascinating glimpses into worldviews very different from those of contemporary America. Filled with insight and affection, as well as some of the most gorgeous writing,Deep Hanging Out will appeal both to newcomers and to those whose roots and hearts reside in the state’s Indian country.

This is the story of San Francisco, a unique and rowdy tale with a legendary cast of characters. It tells of the Indians and the Spanish missions, the arrival of thousands of gold seekers and gamblers, crackbrains and dreamers, the building of the transcontinental railroad and the cable car, labor strife and political shenanigans, the 1906 earthquake and fire, two World Wars, two World's Fairs, two great bridges, the beatniks and hippies and New Left—a story that is so marvelous and wild that it must be true. A new afterword from the author brings The City into the twenty-first century: a time just as hectic, experimental, and opportunistic as its rambunctious past.

Working with an astoundingly talented young writer, Sylvia Linsteadt, and with contributions from the Heyday staff, we return to the East Bay Regional Parks to marvel once again at the animals, plants, sounds, geological formations, and histories so close to home and yet so exotic. Drawing from scientific fact, human history, photography, and literature, thirty exquisite essays on topics as diverse as mountain lions, flower seeds, vernal pools, Indian languages, extinct volcanoes, and beetles reveal “the profound secret that our schools, jobs, government, and all our institutions conspire to keep hidden from us”: namely, that the world around us, when seen through fresh eyes, is in its entirety and in all its parts nothing less than a wonderment.

The Sierra Nevada, with its 14,000-foot granite mountains, crystalline lakes, conifer forests, and hidden valleys, has long been the domain of dreams, attracting the heroic and the delusional, the best of humanity and the worst. Stories abound, and characters emerge so outlandish and outrageous that they have to be real. Could the human imagination have invented someone like Eliza Gilbert? Born in Limerick, Ireland, in 1818, she transformed herself into Lola Montez, born in Seville, Spain, in 1823, and brought to the Gold Country the provocative “Spider Dance”—impersonating a young woman repelling a legion of angry spiders under her petticoats. Or Otto Esche, who in 1860 imported fifteen two-humped Bactrian camels from Asia to transport goods to the mines. Or the artist Albert Bierstadt, whose paintings Mark Twain characterized as having “more the atmosphere of Kingdom-Come than of California.” Or multimillionaire George Whittell Jr., who was frequently spotted driving around Lake Tahoe in a luxurious convertible with his pet lion in the front seat. These, and scores more, spill out of the pages of this well-illustrated and lively tribute to the Sierra by a native son.

When it comes to landscaping, why stop at plastic flamingos? Based on Tom Dalzell's blog of the same name, Quirky Berkeley pays tribute to the boldly imaginative artwork on display in front of, on top of, and engulfing residents' houses all over the city. With full-color photographs and a pithy wit, Dalzell shares his discoveries of the unexpected: the giant orange on Spruce Street, a house shaped like a fish, bowling balls as lawn art, enormous dachshund sculptures, and the birdhouse pyramid on Sacramento, to name just a few of the oddities. Created, installed, and maintained at great expense—not just of money, but of time and creative energy—these are all free to view, all gifts to the street. Included in every write-up are profiles of the artists, whom Dalzell is careful to portray not as stereotypical “Berzerkeleyites” but as individuals who have found their true north of exuberant self-expression. While the very uniqueness of each of these sites invites us to focus on the individual creators, the book also considers what the abundance of such art says about a community and its values. This love letter to idiosyncrasy champions the revolutionary idea that we can build a vibrant community not by demanding conformity but by celebrating difference.