Know That You Are Lucky

Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. Art. Kathan Brown's memoir, KNOW THAT YOU ARE LUCKY, is full of stories about art and artists, but it is also an engaging narrative about an adventurous approach to running a small business in the varying economic times of the past half-century. The narrative in KNOW THAT YOU ARE LUCKY moves quickly, and in the end the author follows the advice of Sol Le Witt (used as one of its chapter titles): "Leap to Conclusions that Logic Cannot Reach."

kathan Brown founded Crown Point Press as an etching workshop in 1962. Located in San Francisco, it has grown to be one of the world's most influential art print publishers. Crown Point Press received the Cyril Award for Arts Business Excellence from the Chamber of Commerce of the City of San Francisco in 1997. The press has been the subject of exhibitions at the National Gallery, Washington, DC; the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Artforum's Bookforum has called Kathan Brown's writing "the next best thing to being there." She is the author of eight books, including Ink, Paper, Metal, Wood (Chronicle Books, 1996) and the editor of the popular MAGIC SECRETS instructional series for printmakers, published by Crown Point Press. She has contributed articles to A John Cage Reader (Wesleyan University Press, 1983), the Cambridge Companion to John Cage (2002), and The Guardian newspaper (UK, 2002).

She has lectured widely and holds honorary doctorates from the San Francisco Art Institute and the California College of the Arts. In 2011, she received a 30th Anniversary Honors Award from Art Table, New York City. The Honors Awards recognized thirty women "whose work has transformed the visual arts landscape" in the United States.