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Publisher Jeff Blom said a prayer to Vishnu, and his prayers were answered. Blom is one of those people whose life is an ornate tapestry of ironic accidents. Though he is Jewish by birth, Blom attended a Quaker high school in Moorestown, New Jersey, not far from Philadelphia. Students there were required to sit in meditative silence for one hour per week, an experience Blom found to be profoundly moving. While there he also read the journal of George Fox, who founded the Society of Friends in England around 1650. And so began a life long interest in saints and sages of all religions. "From 1977 until about 1985, I was homeless," he says. "Not down and out, but in the voluntary sense. I was a pilgrim, involved with a crazy group in Santa Cruz called the Christ Family. It was sort of a commune, except that we all lived on the road. I traveled around the country, mostly on foot, never hitchhiking. Sometimes I would get a job, earn a little money, then go back on the road." Around 1980 he came across a book, published in India, about the life of Swami Ramdas, a holy man who spent much of his life as a penniless pilgrim in India. Blom was astonished by this book, but was disappointed to learn it was mostly unavailable to readers in America. Also about this time, Blom became aware of a book, published in 1982, about the life of an American woman who called herself Peace Pilgrim, and who also lived as a penniless wanderer. He went to work, without salary, for a group in Hemet who call themselves The Friends of Peace Pilgrim, who publish the book about her life, and have given away nearly 400,000 copies. Among other tasks, Blom compiled their newsletter, and in the process taught himself desktop publishing on a personal computer. Blom inquired to the ashram in India, where Swami Ramdas had resided in his last years, asking if he could publish the books he had read many years earlier on the Swami’s life. But the ashram was well aware of the publishing industry’s ability to sacrifice integrity for profits, and Blom was politely told that an American edition of the book was not desired. Eventually, though, after he persisted, he was invited to visit the ashram, where he was told that an American edition of the Swami’s book would be permitted if he agreed to change nothing of the original text. He was ecstatic. During that same two-and-a half-month trip to India, through a series of accidents he describes as "miraculous," Blom acquired the American publishing rights to a total of six books on the lives of Indian saints and sages. He moved into the Maya Apartments, lived in one bedroom, converted another to a shipping room, and the front room to an office, and within three years his new company, Blue Dove Press, had published all the manuscripts he had acquired. "Most of our books are on the lives of Indian saints," Blom says, "but I would like to publish the lives of Islamic saints, Christian saints, Buddhist saints. Our mission here is to show Americans that saints of the world have fascinating lives, they aren’t prudes, they can be light and playful, and they have a lot of love." |
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| Today Blue Dove has six employees and twelve books in its catalog. The works include: Peace Pilgrim’s Wisdom, compiled by Cheryl Canfield; Dialogues on Reality, by La Jolla chemist and author Robert Powell; and Collision with the Infinite, by Suzanne Segal. Other small publishers are amazed at how many books Blue Dove has gotten into print in such a short time. One reason for that is the large number of writers in the new age, or spiritual, movement trying to get into print Still, "It is enormously difficult to make money in publishing," Blom says. "If one of our books sells for fourteen dollars, we’re lucky if we make a dollar twenty-five out of it, and that has to cover our overhead. So how the heck do you make any money at this?" It’s enough to try the patience of the saints and sages. Sucking up his courage and determination, he plods on, like a homeless pilgrim trudging down a rainy highway. "I know there’s a way to survive in publishing, and we’re going to figure out what it is." |
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Visit Blue Dove Press at www.bluedove.com |
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