Sierra Club Books
| Parent company | Sierra Club |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1960 |
| Founder | David Brower |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Headquarters location | San Francisco |
| Distribution | Publishers Group West |
| Publication types | Books |
| Official website |
www |
Sierra Club Books is the publishing division of the Sierra Club, founded in 1960 by then Sierra Club President David Brower. 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. Their first in-house book, volume 1 in the Exhibit Format series, was This is the American Earth, published in 1960.[1] 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 and Island In Time: The Point Reyes Peninsula with photographs by Philip Hyde. The series won the 1964 Carey-Thomas Award for creative publishing, by Publishers Weekly. Fifty thousand copies were sold in the first four years, and by 1964 sales exceeded $10 million. Soon they were publishing two new titles a year in the Exhibit Format series, but not all did as well as In Wildness. The books were successful in introducing the public to wilderness preservation and the Sierra Club,[2] but lost money for the organization, some $60,000 a year after 1964. Paperback reprints of many of the Exhibit Format books were published by Ballantine Books. Other books published by Sierra Club Books include various field guides, and books on environmental activism, such as the Sierra Club Battlebooks. They 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.
Partial bibliography
Exhibit Format
- (edited by David Brower, unless otherwise indicated)
- This is the American Earth, Ansel Adams and Nancy Newhall (1960)
- Words of the Earth, photographs by Cedric Wright, edited by Nancy Newhall (1960)
- These We Inherit: The Parklands of America, Ansel Adams
- "In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World", selected text by Henry David Thoreau, edited by, and with photographs by, Eliot Porter (1962)
- The Place No One Knew: Glen Canyon on the Colorado, photographs by Eliot Porter
- The Last Redwoods: Photographs and Story of a Vanishing Scenic Resource, Philip Hyde and Franćois Leydet
- Ansel Adams: A Biography. Volume 1: The Eloquent Light, Nancy Newhall
- Time and the River Flowing: Grand Canyon, Philip Hyde and Franćois Leydet
- Gentle Wilderness: The Sierra Nevada, excerpted text from John Muir, photographs by Richard Kauffman
- Not Man Apart: Photographs of the Big Sur Coast, excerpted poetry from Robinson Jeffers
- The Wild Cascades: Forgotten Parkland, Harvey Manning, foreword by William O. Douglas (1965)
- Everest: The West Ridge, Thomas F. Hornbein, with photographs from the American Mount Everest Expedition[3]
- Summer Island: Penobscot Country, Eliot Porter
- Navajo Wildlands: As Long as The Rivers Shall Run, Stephen Jett, photographs by Philip Hyde (Kenneth Brower, editor)
- Kauai and the Park Country of Hawaii Robert Wenkam (Kenneth Brower, editor)
- Glacier Bay: The Land and the Silence, Dave Bohn
- Baja California and the Geography of Hope, Joseph Wood Krutch, photographs by Eliot Porter (Kenneth Brower, editor)
- Central Park Country: A Tune Within Us, Mireille Johnston, photographs by Nancy and Retta Johnson (introduction by Marianne Moore)
- The Earth's Wild Places (published in cooperation with The Conservation Foundation)(Kenneth Brower, editor)
- 19. Galápagos: The Flow of Wildness 1. Discovery, photographs by Eliot Porter, introduction by Loren Eiseley, with selected text from Charles Darwin, Herman Melville, and others.
- 20. Galápagos: The Flow of Wildness 2. Prospect, photographs by Eliot Porter, introduction by John B. Milton, text by Eliot Porter and Kenneth Brower
Battlebooks
- Oil on Ice: Alaskan Wilderness at the Crossroads, Tom Brown (B-1)
- Mercury, Katherine and Peter Montague (B-2) (1971)
Yolla Bolly Press
- The Yosemite, John Muir, photographs by Galen Rowell, 1989
Material World
- Material World: A Global Family Portrait, Charles C. Mann, photographs by Peter Menzel, introduction by Paul Kennedy (1994)
- Women in the Material World, Faith D'Aluisio, photographs by Peter Menzel, foreword by Naomi Wolf (1996)
Other
- Starr’s Guide to the John Muir Trail and the High Sierra Region, Walter A. Starr, Jr. (originally published in 1934 by the Sierra Club, before the founding of Sierra Club Books)
- Island in Time: The Point Reyes Peninsula, Harold Gilliam, photographs by Philip Hyde (photographer), foreword by Stuart Udall (1962)
- On the Loose, Terry & Renny Russell (1967)
- The Population Bomb, Paul R. Ehrlich (1968) (co-published by Ballantine Books)
- On the Shore of the Sundown Sea, T.H. Watkins (editor, American West Publishing), illustrated by Earl Thollander (1973)
- The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture, Wendell Berry (1977)
- Fifty Classic Climbs of North America, Steve Roper & Allen Steck (1979) ISBN 0-87156-292-8
- Annapurna: A Woman's Place, Arlene Blum (1980), ISBN 0-87156-236-7
- The River Why, David James Duncan (1983)
- In a Grain of Sand: Exploring Design by Nature, Andreas Feininger (1986)
- Wild by Law: The Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund and the Places It Has Saved, Tom Turner, photographs by Carr Clifton, Philip Hyde (photographer) and others (1990) (published in association with the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund)
- California's Wild Heritage: Threatened and Endangered Animals in the Golden State, Peter Steinhart, introduction by Robert I. Bowman, in collaboration with the California Department of Fish and Game and the California Academy of Sciences (1990)
- In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations, Jerry Mander (1991) ISBN 978-0-87156-509-9
- Mother Earth: Through the Eyes of Women Photographers and Writers, Judith Boice, editor (1992)
- Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind, Theodore Roszak, et al. (1995) ISBN 0-87156-406-8
- Bay Area Wild: A Celebration of the Natural Heritage of the San Francisco Bay Area, Galen Rowell with Michael Sewell (1997)
- The Winemaker's Marsh: Four Seasons in a Restored Wetland, Kenneth Brower, photographs by Michael Sewell. (2001) ISBN 1-57805-058-8 (on the Viansa Wetlands)[4]
- Galen Rowell: A Retrospective, foreword by Tom Brokaw, biographical introduction by Robert Roper, commentary by Andy Grundberg (2006)
- Gloryland, Shelton Johnson (2009) ISBN 978-1-57805-144-1