About Us

Vinson Brown founded Naturegraph in 1946 in Los Altos, California. He named his new company Nature (for nature) graph (for well written or drawn), focusing first on nature leaflets and maps, which were purchased by school systems. In 1950, he was joined by his wife, Barbara, and nature books replaced the leaflets. In 1953, the couple moved to San Martin, CA, where they ran the business from their home, and during which time their three children: Tamara, Roxana, and Keven were born. Having a degree in anthropology from U.C. Berkeley, Vinson started a second publishing niche: Native Americans. In 1960, they located near Healdsburg, CA (where the company expanded to operating out of three buildings with twelve full-time employees). Over the years, books of local interest, like Dear Mad'm, were added to Naturegraph's growing list of titles. In 1976, Naturegraph moved to Happy Camp, a small town in the Siskiyou Mountains of northern California, and a 10,000 square foot building was built to house both its printing and publishing operations.

After the passing of Vinson in 1991, Barbara continued to run the company on her own until September 8, 2020, when wildfires completely burned the building and its inventory. Barbara, now 92, decided to pass the company on to her son, Keven Brown, who is working to make a number of Naturegraph titles available by print-on-demand. The company was downsized from a corporation to a sole proprietorship in February 2021 and renamed Naturegraph & Keven Brown Publications. The new name indicates that a new publication niche has been added to the family company, one that reflects Keven's training in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures (he received his Ph.D. from UCLA in 2006) and his interest in publishing Islamic Philosophy texts in the original Arabic with side-by-side English translation.

As Naturegraph continues with a new family owner, we thank you for your support and will strive to further the interests of our readers. We believe that understanding the knowledge and traditions of yesteryear is important to building a better future in which humans live harmoniously together.