Maxton Beckwith was a municipal bonds trader in San Francisco for 11 years when he decided to give his notice and start a book publishing company. At 41, he lives in west Ketchum with his family. He runs his business, The Little Author, out of his house.
"I did it cold turkey," Beckwith said. "I wanted to take kids' art work and make it presentable in a book form to empower kids."
Beckwith said he had been illustrating on the side. He knew he was not in the right profession as a trader.
Beckwith's publishing calling was also not completely unfounded. His grandfather had published textbooks, as well as developed tractors from the first cars for big Detroit companies, worked for Gulf Oil and taught at a university. As a small child, Beckwith was captivated by his grandfather's accomplishments, especially as a published author.
"I was always interested in children's books," he said. "I had illustrated a couple of things."
When Beckwith began his hand-crafted, custom book publishing company in 2005, he received good press from Parents magazine and television shows. He did well. The Little Author took off.
"I received a solid customer base of 500 customers," he said.
But Beckwith did not want the pressure and headaches of running a big company—he had left that behind when he terminated his trading career and moved to Idaho. Beckwith's mother is manager of Idaho Rocky Mountain Ranch in the Sawtooth Valley.
Beckwith said he decided to scale back his company to a more boutique business for fine, handcrafted custom books.
"I want to do larger projects with people who are on the same page as me," he said. "My dream is to be involved with a nonprofit business. I'm looking for the right nonprofit."
Beckwith's books "Superlicious!," by his daughter, Brooke Beckwith, and "The Knights' War" by his son, Blake Beckwith, contain original artwork by the children. In addition, Beckwith has published a book with supermodel and spokesperson Cindy Crawford and her daughter.
"It's their artwork and artistic freedom," he said. "The book is a piece of artwork as itself."
The books are hard covered and printed on linen paper that is thick and elegant. Images are captured by scanning or photography and are printed clearly with beautiful color balance. Beckwith has his own machinery to bind and print books in his west Ketchum home.
"People want something different," he said.
Books can be ordered on the website www.thelittleauthor.com.
Sabina Dana Plasse: splasse@mtexpress.com
Actress and writer Jamie Lee Curtis poses with Blake and Brooke Beckwith at Curtis’ book signing at Iconoclast Books in Ketchum on Thursday, Dec. 23. Photo by David N. Seelig
