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Guide to the J. F. Rowny Press Records
Printers Mss 12
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Table of contents
Title: J. F. Rowny Press Records,
Date (inclusive): ca. 1912-1967
Collection Number: Printers Mss 12
Creator:
Rowny (J. F.)
Extent:
2 linear feet
(5 document boxes)
Repository:
University of California, Santa Barbara. Library. Department of Special Collections
Santa Barbara, California 93106-9010
Physical Location: Del Sur
Language:
English.
None.
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.
J. F. Rowny Press Records. Printers Mss 12. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California,
Santa Barbara.
Purchase, 1987.
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.
Scope and Content of Collection
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.
Related Rowny publications have been cataloged separately and may be searched on Pegasus, the UCSB Libraries online catalog.