Founding editor-publisher Ronald Nowicki launched his publication April 1975, a time when the San Francisco Chronicle depended on the wire services for its reviews.

In addition to the reviews and coverage of San Francisco's small press scene, SFRB offered interviews with such authors as Eric Ambler, Ann Beattie, Ray Bradbury, John Kenneth Galbraith, Herbert Gold, Elia Kazan, Jerzy Kosinski, William Kotzwinkle, Henry Miller, and Paul Theroux.

The roster of SFRB contributors included Alice Adams, Carolyn Burke, Alexander Chee, Peter Dreyer (interview with Henry Miller in the February 1977 issue), Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Thomas Gladysz, Stephen Greenblatt, Pam Houston, Diane Johnson, Emily Leider, Michael McDonagh, Leonard Michaels, Steven Moore, Ishmael Reed[1] and Mary Elizabeth Williams.

[3] SFRB received little funding and had no backers, so it relied on a combination of advertising revenues, subscriptions, grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and volunteers for financial support.

His articles have appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, North American Review and other publications.