Arthur Naiman

May 12, 1941 - May 13, 2019

Arthur Naiman, longtime S.F. Bay Area writer, editor and publisher, died in Tucson, AZ on May 13. Best known as the creator of the first independent Apple user manual, The Macintosh Bible, Naiman was born in Chicago, IL, graduated from Brandeis, and studied philosophy in Paris. He returned to New York City, writing for ad agencies and teaching in public schools for several years. He said copywriting ads taught him write smooth, bump-free text, so easy to scan no one could stop reading. Naiman moved to the Bay Area in 1976 and continued in advertising while developing book ideas in a publishing scene friendlier than Manhattan. His first book was Every Goy’s Guide to Common Jewish Expressions, a humorous and informative book about Yiddish (which he learned to write the book.)

With the advent of the personal computer, Naiman was enthusiastic about the technology but appalled by the quality of the user manuals. He produced a series of books to teach people to use computers and their programs while also entertaining them and making them think. After publishing several books, including Introduction to WordStar -- he hated the program so much he negotiated a contract to use another word-processing program to write the manual – Naiman started his own publishing company. Goldstein & Blair was named in honor of George Orwell, whose born surname was Blair, and his enemy of the state in 1984, Goldstein. He published hundreds of thousands of copies of The Macintosh Bible and a dozen other guides, all characterized by clear writing, usefulness, and humor.

The success of Goldstein & Blair enabled Naiman to start a second company, Odonian Press, designed to publish political books. Naiman noticed that many left political writers produced difficult to read books, but gave accessible talks and interviews. He turned material from Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal, and others into Odonian’s Real Story Series, 17 titles in all, each small enough to fit in your back pocket. The books sold hundreds of thousands of copies around the world, including his own contribution, the “anticonspiracy” book, 9/11 The Simple Facts: Why the Official Story Can’t Possibly Be True.

Naiman moved to Tucson for health reasons in 1996, but remained close to friends and the Bay Area, returning regularly. He became a docent at the Tucson Poetry Center and an avid badminton and pickleball player. A lifelong leftist and freethinker, he quietly supported social justice organizations, including as a board member of the San Carlos Foundation. He enjoyed sharing jazz and classical music, movies, art, food, travels, and stories. A Bay Area celebration of his life is being planned.