Sierra Club Books

Sierra Club Books was the publishing division, for both adults and children, of the Sierra Club, founded in 1960 by then club President David Brower. They were a United States publishing company located in San Francisco, California with a concentration on biological conservation. In 2014 the adult division of the organization was sold to Counterpoint LLC and the children's books division to Gibbs Smith.

Sierra Club Books
Parent companySierra Club
Founded1960 (1960)
FounderDavid Brower
DefunctMay 27, 2015 (2015-05-27)
Successor
Country of origin United States
Headquarters location San Francisco
DistributionPublishers Group West
Publication typesBooks
Nonfiction topicsEnvironmentalism

History

The Sierra Club started its book program in 1952, when David Brower, an editor with the University of California Press, became the club's executive director. In 1954, they published the first of its climbers’ and hikers’ guides. In 1960, when the Sierra Club Books began, they published the ‘Exhibit Format Book Series’, a collection of nature photography and in 1964 they published their first color volume, Elliot Porter's In Wilderness Is the Preservation of the World.[1]

Volumes intended for club members had been published prior to 1960. In addition, books under their name had been published before 1960, but done through already established publishers, as was the case with This Is Dinosaur, published by Alfred A. Knopf.[2]

Their first in-house book, volume 1 in the Exhibit Format series, was This is the American Earth, published in 1960.[3] In 1962, they introduced color photography to the series with the publication of In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World with photographs by Eliot Porter[4] and Island In Time: The Point Reyes Peninsula with photographs by Philip Hyde.[5] The series won the 1964 Carey–Thomas Award for creative publishing, by Publishers Weekly.[6] Fifty thousand copies were sold in the first four years,[7] and by 1964 sales exceeded 10,000,000 US dollars.[8] The books were successful in introducing the public to wilderness preservation and to the Sierra Club.[9] Paperback reprints of many of the Exhibit Format books were published by Ballantine Books.[10]

After Brower left the Club in 1969,[10] the club came under the leadership of Jon Beckmann from 1979 (1979) to 1991 (1991). During Beckmann's tenure the program expanded and diversified considerably, publishing books by established and emerging writers such as Wendell Berry, Robert Bly, Galen Rowell, and David Rains Wallace as well as field guides, fiction, poetry, and books on environmental activism, such as the Sierra Club Battlebooks.[11] Many Sierra Club books were produced by the Yolla Bolly Press run by Jim and Carolyn Robertson in Covelo, California.[10] The program continued for two decades after 1994, first under Peter Beren, the former marketing director,[12] then under Helen Sweetland, the former children's books editor.[13] The press closed in 2015 with the adult division of the organization being sold to Counterpoint LLC and the children's books division to Gibbs Smith.[14]

The Club continues to publish the Sierra Club Wilderness Calendar and the Sierra Club Engagement Calendar annually, which are perennial bestsellers. They are distributed to the book trade by Publishers Group West.[14]

Partial bibliography

Exhibit Format

Battlebooks
  • (1971) Oil on Ice: Alaskan Wilderness at the Crossroads, Tom Brown[33]
  • (1971) Mercury: How Much Are We Eating?, Katherine and Peter Montague[34]

Yolla Bolly Press

Material World
  • (1994) Material World: A Global Family Portrait, Charles C. Mann[37]
  • (1996) Women in the Material World, Faith D'Aluisio[38]

Other

References
  1. Luey, Beth E. (2010). The Oxford Companion to the Book: Sierra Club Books. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19957-014-0. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
  2. Stegner, Wallace (1955). This is Dinosaur: Echo Park Country and Its Magic Rivers. Alfred A. Knopf – via Google Books.
  3. Adams, Ansel; Newhall, Nancy (1960). Brower, David (ed.). This is the American Earth. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 978-0-87156-001-8 – via Google Books.
  4. Thoreau, Henry David (1962). Porter, Eliot (ed.). In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books – via Google Books.
  5. Hyde, Philip (1974). Island in Time: The Point Reyes Peninsula. Foreword by Harold Gilliam. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 978-0-68413-439-0 – via Google Books.
  6. Staff writer (15 May 1965). "Sierra Club Wins Book Award for Nature Series". Napa Valley Register. Retrieved 4 December 2022 – via newspapers.com (subscription required).
  7. Luong, QT Luong. "Collecting Photography Books: A Primer". terragalleria.com.
  8. Gross, Liza (25 July 2012). "Picturing Biodiversity: Cultivating an Eye for Conservation". KQED Inc. San Francisco, California. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
  9. Nichols, Lewis (8 December 1968). "Sierra Club Books". The New York Times.
  10. "Sierra Club Office of the Executive Director Records". 2002. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
  11. Werris, Wendy (28 January 2013). "Obituary: Jon Beckmann, Former Sierra Club Books Publisher, Dead at 76". Retrieved 4 November 2022.
  12. Beren, Peter. "Peter Beren: Professional History". Retrieved 4 November 2022.
  13. "Helen Sweetland, NCBS Board Member & Highway One Musician, Publisher Of Sierra Club Books". ncbs.info. 23 May 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
  14. Carr, Cindy (27 May 2015). "Sierra Club Closes Book Publishing Program". Sierra Club. San Francisco. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
  15. Newhall, Nancy, ed. (2021) [1st pub. 1960]. Words of the Earth. Photographs by Cedric Wright (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 978-1-01494-274-6 – via Google Books.
  16. Hyde, Philip; Litton, Martin (1960). Brower, David (ed.). Time and the River Flowing: Grand Canyon. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
  17. Adams, Ansel (1960). Brower, David (ed.). These We Inherit: The Parklands of America. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books – via Google Books.
  18. Porter, Eliot (1963). Brower, David (ed.). The Place No One Knew: Glen Canyon on the Colorado. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books – via Google Books.
  19. Newhall, Nancy (1963). Brower, David (ed.). Ansel Adams: A Biography, Volume 1: The Eloquent Light. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books – via Google Books.
  20. Hyde, Philip; Leydet, Franćois (1964). Brower, David (ed.). The Last Redwoods: Photographs and Story of a Vanishing Scenic Resource. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books – via Google Books.
  21. Muir, John (1964). Brower, David (ed.). Gentle Wilderness: The Sierra Nevada. Photographs by Richard Kauffman. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 978-0-87156-106-0 – via Google Books.
  22. Jeffers, Robinson (1965). Brower, David (ed.). Not Man Apart: Photographs of the Big Sur Coast. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 978-0-34525-539-6 – via Google Books.
  23. Manning, Manning (1965). Brower, David (ed.). The Wild Cascades: Forgotten Parkland. Foreword by William O. Douglas. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books – via Google Books.
  24. Hornbein, Thomas F. (1998) [1st pub. 1965]. Brower, David (ed.). Everest: The West Ridge. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, Mountaineers. ISBN 978-0-89886-616-2 – via Google Books.
  25. Porter, Eliot (1966). Brower, David (ed.). Summer Island: Penobscot Country. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
  26. Bohn, Dave (1966). Brower, David (ed.). Glacier Bay: The Land and the Silence. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
  27. Jett, Stephen (1969). Kenneth, David (ed.). Navajo Wildlands: As Long as The Rivers Shall Run. Photographs by Philip Hyde. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books – via Google Books.
  28. Wenkam, Robert (1969). Brower, Kenneth (ed.). Kauai and the Park Country of Hawaii. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
  29. Krutch, Joseph Wood (1967). Brower, Kenneth (ed.). Baja California and the Geography of Hope. Photographs by Eliot Porter. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
  30. Johnston, Mireille (1968). Brower, David (ed.). Central Park Country: A Tune Within Us. Photographs by Nancy and Retta Johnson; Introduction by Marianne Moore. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
  31. Porter, Eliot (1968). Brower, Kenneth (ed.). Galápagos: The Flow of Wildness - Vol. 1: Discovery. Introduction by Loren Eiseley, with selected text from Charles Darwin and Herman Melville. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books – via Google Books.
  32. Porter, Eliot (1968). Brower, Kenneth (ed.). Galápagos: The Flow of Wildness - Vol. 2: Prospect. Introduction by Loren Eiseley, with selected text from Charles Darwin and Herman Melville. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books – via Google Books.
  33. Brown, Tom (1971). Oil on Ice: Alaskan Wilderness at the Crossroads. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
  34. Montague, Katherine; Montague, Peter (1971). Mercury: How Much Are We Eating?. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
  35. Wallace, David Rains (1984). Brower, David (ed.). The Wilder Shore. Photographs by Morley Baer, Foreword by Wallace Stegner. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, Yolla Bolly Press. ISBN 978-0-87156-328-6 – via Google Books.
  36. Muir, John (2018) [1st pub. 1989]. The Yosemite. photographs by Galen Rowell. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, Yolla Bolly Press. ISBN 978-0-48683-488-7 – via Google Books.
  37. Mann, Charles C. (1994). Material World: A Global Family Portrait. Material World. Photographs by Peter Menzel, Introduction by Paul Kennedy. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, Catapult. ISBN 978-0-87156-430-6 – via Google Books.
  38. Faith, D'Aluisio (1996). Brower (ed.). Women in the Material World. Material World. Photographs by Peter Menzel, foreword by Naomi Wolf. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 978-0-87156-398-9 – via Google Books.
  39. Russell, Terry; Russell, Renny (2001) [1st pub. 1967]. On the Loose (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Gibbs Smith. ISBN 978-0-87905-995-8 – via Google Books.
  40. Ehrlich, Paul R. (1971) [1968]. The Population Bomb (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-1-56849-587-3 – via Google Books.
  41. Watkins, T.H. (1990) [1st pub. 1973]. On the Shore of the Sundown Sea. Illustrated by Earl Thollander (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, American West Publishing. ISBN 978-0-80184-129-3 – via Google Books.
  42. Starr, Walter Augustus (1974) [1st pub. 1934, Sierra Club]. Starr's Guide to the John Muir Trail and the High Sierra Region (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 978-0-87156-172-5 – via Google Books.
  43. Wendell, Berry (1996) [1st pub. 1977]. The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 978-0-87156-877-9 – via Google Books.
  44. Worster, David (1985) [1st pub. 1977]. Nature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 978-0-52126-792-2 – via Google Books.
  45. Wallace, David Rains (1978). The Dark Range: A Naturalist's Night Notebook. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 978-0-87156-212-8 – via Google Books.
  46. Roper, Steve; Steck, Allen (1982) [1st pub. 1979]. Fifty Classic Climbs of North America (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 978-0-87156-262-3 – via Google Books.
  47. Blum, Blum (1980). Annapurna: A Woman's Place. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 978-0-87156-236-4 – via Google Books.
  48. Wallace, David Rains (2003) [1st pub. 1983]. The Klamath Knot: Explorations in Myth and Evolution (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 978-0-52023-659-2 – via Google Books.
  49. Feininger, Andreas (1986). In a Grain of Sand: Exploring Design by Nature. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 978-0-87156-763-5 – via Google Books.
  50. Turner, Tom (1990). Wild by Law: The Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund and the Places It Has Saved. Illustrated by Carr Clifton, Philip Hyde Et al. San Francisco: Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund.
  51. Steinhart, Peter (1990). California's Wild Heritage: Threatened and Endangered Animals in the Golden State. Introduction by Robert I. Bowman. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books in collaboration with the California Department of Fish and Game and the California Academy of Sciences.
  52. Mander, Jerry (1991) [1st pub.]. In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 978-0-87156-739-0 – via Google Books.
  53. Boice, Judith (1992). Boice, Judith (ed.). Mother Earth: Through the Eyes of Women Photographers and Writers. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 978-0-87156-556-3 – via Google Books.
  54. Roszak, Theodore; Gomes, Mary E.; Kanner, Allen D. (1995). Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 978-0-87156-406-1 – via Google Books.
  55. Wallace, David Rains (2007) [1st pub. 1997]. The Monkey's Bridge: Mysteries of Evolution in Central America (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, Trinity University Press. ISBN 978-1-59534-040-5 – via Google Books.
  56. Rowell, Galen; Sewell, Michael (1999) [1st pub. 1997]. Bay Area Wild: A Celebration of the Natural Heritage of the San Francisco Bay Area (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 978-1-57805-010-9 – via Google Books.
  57. Brower, Kenneth (2001). The Winemaker's Marsh: Four Seasons in a Restored Wetland. Sierra Club Books;Random House. ISBN 1-57805-058-8 – via Google Books.
  58. Grundberg, Andy (2006). Galen Rowell: A Retrospective. foreword by Tom Brokaw. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 978-1-57805-115-1 – via Google Books.
  59. Johnson, Shelton (2009). Gloryland: A Novel. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. ISBN 978-1-57805-144-1 – via Google Books.
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