The collection contains records of the Santa Barbara-based J. F. Rowny Press, publishers of works on religion and metaphysics. It includes incoming/and some outgoing correspondence (arranged alphabetically), financial records, galleys and typescript drafts of submissions for publication, and some miscellaneous files, including pamphlets and flyers from other authors and publishers of similar kinds of material, many located in California.

Joseph F. Rowny was born in Austria-Hungary in 1882. By 1916, he was living in Los Angeles, California, where he founded the J. F. Rowny Press, which sought to promote works on non-sectarian religion. His company masthead advertised "Philosophical, Metaphysical, Mystic, and the New Age Literature." In the mid-1920s, he began to buy property in Santa Barbara from real estate broker Harold S. Chase. Then, in 1932, he relocated the Press to his new address in Santa Barbara, and continued to operate it there until his death in 1976 at the age of 93. After his death, a Rowny Foundation was established, which eventually deeded his estate to the Religious Studies Department at the University of California Santa Barbara, which created two chairs in his honor.

2 linear feet (5 document boxes)

Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.

None.