Andrew Hoyem came to California when he was eleven in 1946. He attended high school at China Lake, on the Mojave Desert, then graduated from Pomona College in 1957, where he received an honorary doctorate in 2015. After serving as an officer in the United States Navy, he came to San Francisco in 1961 to join the Auerhahn Press, a small publisher of Beat Generation writers. From 1966 to 1973 he was in partnership with Robert Grabhorn, formerly of the Grabhorn Press, in a fine printing firm. In 1974 the company name was changed to Arion Press and the publishing program expanded to issue such major works as Moby-Dick (1979) and an important series of artist books with original prints by contemporary artists, including Jim Dine, Robert Motherwell, Martin Puryear, Julie Mehretu, and Kara Walker. Four books of his poetry and two booka of his translations have been published.