August Fruge was an influential publisher for the University of California Press from 1944 to 1976. Fruge also was the Chair of the Publications Committee of the Sierra Club and was part of the founding years of the California Native Plant Society. He was born in Idaho before moving to Oregon at an early age. He graduated from Stanford University in 1933 and later graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in librarianship in 1937. After receiving his degree he worked with the Sacramento Book Collectors Club which led him to the University of California Press in 1944. In 1949 he was made director of the Press where he focused on pushing quality paperback publications. Fruge also was part of the UCLA office of the Press in the financial area, the American Association of University Presses and university publishing in Latin America under CILA or Centro Interamericano de Libros Académicos in the 1950s. Outside of the UC system, he was the Chair of the Publications Committee of the Sierra Club in the 1960s and was part of the California Native Plant Society alongside his wife, Susan Fruge. In this interview Fruge discusses reorganizing the Press, internal conflicts and power struggles, relationships between universities and their press, guiding Sierra Club publications, and activism within the CNPS (California Native Plant Society). In the Bancroft Library are the following additional materials: Appendices include extensive correspondence, and writings by Frugé. Supplemental material includes compact disc recording of Susan Frugé memorial service, March 4, 2001. Supplemental material (vol. 1) includes documents relating to August Frugé publishing career and the Sierra Club. Supplemental material (vol. 2) includes correspondence between Frugé and Suzanne Riess, clippings and miscellany, and a few photographs of Frugé and his wife. This interview is part of a group of interviews documenting the history of the University of California.