Bill McClung, founder of University Press Books bookstore and the Musical Offering Café and a former UC Press editor, died on July 27 at age 81, Berkeleyside.com reported.
University Press Books was founded in Berkeley, Calif., in 1974 as a partnership of 25 people devoted to books published by English-language university presses. McClung "conceived a unique consignment plan, promising to keep highly specialized books in stock until they went out of print," Berkeleyside wrote. "Better for the books to be on a store shelf, available for perusal and the possibility of purchase, than locked up in warehouses: that was Bill's persuasive argument, offered to the world's universities."
As Berkeleyside recounted, over the years, "the store expanded its inventory to stock titles from general presses. It increased its cultural offerings too and hosted numerous author talks, book groups, movies and classes, as well as dinners centered around a book or topic where guests might read a poem. It also rented the store out for popup events."
Only two months ago, University Press Books bookstore announced the closing of its bricks-and-mortar location, after years of struggling to pay its monthly rent of $10,000 and after sales declined because of Amazon and then the Covid-19 pandemic. Some of the store's inventory was moved next door to the Musical Offering Café, which has remained open, and much of it went to Wilsted and Taylor Publishing Services, one of the store's original partners, on 40th Street in Oakland. At the time, McClung said that next year he hoped to find a new, smaller space in Berkeley, one with a much lower rent. In the meantime, the store has continued online sales.
McClung also worked at the University of California Press from 1969-1992, rising from editor and editorial manager to editorial director. Earlier he had been sponsoring editor in the humanities and social science editor at Princeton University Press. As Berkeleyside noted, "Bill became known for an active and energetic style--continually recruiting new authors, proposing and commissioning new books and series."
Among the books he edited and/or acquired were The State of the Language, edited by Leonard Michaels and Christopher Ricks; The University of California/Sotheby Book of California Wines; the Quantum Books series; the three-volume work The Plan of St. Gall by Ernst Born and Walter Horn; and the Mark Twain Papers series.
McClung was also a co-creator of University Publishing, a newsletter that included articles about scholarly publishing, book reviews, and lists of new books published by the university presses.
After the 1991 Oakland Hills fire, which destroyed his home, he became one of the founding members of the Claremont Canyon Conservancy and served on its board until 2009. He also served for two years on the Berkeley Fire Commission, and helped establish the Vicente Canyon Hillside Foundation to preserve a two-and-one-half-acre fragment of open space in the south Berkeley Hills. He was also associated with Shelterbelt Builders, which focused on brush reduction and native plant restoration.
"His main love was for his businesses, especially the bookstore," his wife, Karen McClung, told the Daily Californian. "Everything he did was related to his work and to literary arts."
Regular customer and book group member Ken Knabb told the Daily Californian that McClung was an enthusiastic participant in the many book groups and author appearances that took place at the store around what McClung called "the big table." "Our discussions sometimes got heated, but I never heard him say a mean thing," Knabb said, adding that McClung enjoyed reading out loud with others while having some wine.
The events had a major impact on the community, and "that was one of the reasons he worked so hard to preserve the store," Karen McClung said. "The camaraderie of just being with people and having literary discussions, that's what he loved to do."
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to University Press Books and/or the Musical Offering to support McClung's vision of ensuring that books and recorded classical music continue to enrich the life of the mind and spirit in our community.