So Damn Beautiful (It'll Break Your Heart)

The first definitive collection of Malcolm Margolin's essential writing—a celebration of one of California's most beloved storytellers, publishers, and cultural visionaries.

For more than fifty years, Malcolm Margolin transformed the way Californians understand their home. As the founding publisher of Heyday, cofounder of News from Native California, and author of the landmark classic The Ohlone Way, he championed overlooked histories, amplified Indigenous voices, and inspired generations of readers to see California with greater curiosity, humility, and wonder. Described by Rebecca Solnit as "the glue that holds the sweetest parts of California together," Margolin was—above all—an unforgettable storyteller.

So Damn Beautiful (It’ll Break Your Heart) brings together the finest of his writing for the first time, including beloved essays, long-unavailable pieces, and hidden gems that reveal the warmth, wit, and emotional honesty that made him such a profound presence. Whether writing about California's astonishing natural beauty, his lifelong friendships with tribal communities, or the writers and thinkers who have revealed the Golden State's most capacious, awe-inspiring sense of itself, Margolin invites readers to delight in the surprising grace found in ordinary encounters and the marvels hidden in plain sight.

Edited by his friend and colleague Emmerich Anklam, this posthumous volume is an immersion in Margolin's irresistible sensibility: soulful, generous, and laugh-out-loud funny. And it's a bounty of riches—both for readers who have followed Margolin for decades, and for anyone encountering his singular and enchanting voice for the first time. So Damn Beautiful (It’ll Break Your Heart) reveals why Margolin is hailed as one of California's essential storytellers.