top of page
Gregory Graalfs-Founder, Reverberations Books

It could be said that Reverberations Books began in a small room with an awe-inspiring view of Monterey Bay located under the Cowell College dining hall at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 1974 I enrolled in my first class with Jack Stauffacher, typographer and proprietor of Greenwood Press, San Francisco. Jack taught typographic fundamentals and book printing at the Cowell Press, working with a Vandercook proof press and metal type. With the guidance of Jack as well as Provost Jasper Rose and poet and printer William Everson, I graduated in 1976 with a B.A. in The Art of the Book.

     In my career I worked in commercial printing, did print production and design management at companies including Polaroid, Creative Wonders, and IDG Books (the Dummies series). I was later in sales with Sheridan Books, Michigan where I met many West Coast publishers. In this work I had the good fortune to meet Bruce Rutledge at Chin Music Press.

     My awareness of environmentalism began with the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. A high school sophomore in Mountain View, California, I rode my bicycle with fellow students to Gunn High School for a rally organized for area students. Now as an adult I am appalled by the intransigence of politicians and business leaders to address climate change and global warming. Publishing presents a means to address our pressing environmental issues that feels true to my background and experience.

Photograph of Gregory Graalfs
P1050035_edited-1.jpg
bottom of page