In direct response to these new grants Talonbooks decided to publish a cookbook . A successful effort would add substantially to Talon's revenues. These revenues could then subsidize the less profitable literary titles on Talon's list , but more importantly they would allow Talonbooks to attract a larger grant from the DOC.

At the time David Robinson was sharing a house with a woman named Susan Mendelson, who had recently started her own catering firm. Out of that association came Talon's first cookbook, Susan Mendelson's "Mama Never Cooked Like This," which was published in December of 1980. The first printing sold out almost immediately. Sales from the second printing began to roll in during the early part of 1981, peaking in May of that year with what has proven to be Talon's record month.

"Mama Never Cooked Like This" was the first of three cookbooks eventually published by Talonbooks, all of them with an eye to attracting funding through the DOC's granting program. In 1982 "The Umberto Menghi Cookbook" appeared. It also sold well, although not as well as Susan Mendelson's book had done. "The Granville Island Market Cookbook" was the final cookbook to be produced by Talonbooks, appearing in 1985.

The effect of these cookbooks on Talon's overall sales figures was quite startling, as can be seen from the chart in Appendix B. Sales of the Mendelson cookbook alone were sufficient to increase Talon's total unit sales for 1981 by over 60% from the previous year. Sales continued near that peak for several years before eventually settling back to 1980 levels, with sales of Talon's literary titles remaining fairly constant throughout.

In the spring of 1984, in the midst of the glow that surrounded Talon's success with their first cookbooks, a disagreement arose between David Robinson and Talonbooks. At issue was the future direction of the company: would they continue their marginal existence as a publisher of poetry, drama and fiction, or was this the moment to branch out and become a publisher of more mainstream works? This was not the first time that major choices had been pondered: in 1978 David Robinson saw Talonbooks facing a major decision after ten years of operation. "We're a medium-sized publishing house in danger of stagnating or of being told we're good at publishing plays and nothing else" (Thompson 1978).

Karl, as president of the company, took the position that Talonbooks was an intellectual and literary company, and that many people throughout Talon's history "had put in years of underpaid, totally exploited labour and so on, for the love of an intellectual life, a life of letters" (Siegler 1991). Talon becoming a commercial publisher would mean an abandonment of the original ideals and goals that the company had been founded on. In the end there was a parting of the ways and David Robinson left Talonbooks in April of 1984, although he remains a partner in the company.

With David Robinson's departure Talonbooks was left with only two full-time staff members, Karl Siegler and Mary Schendlinger , handling everything from production to promotion. Mary remembers that period as being one where there were always more things to do than there was time to do them in (Schendlinger 1991) - a situation which has faced small publishers everywhere, gradually wearing away at their energy and enthusiasm.

Talonbooks: Publishing from the Margins. © April, 1991 Michael Hayward