Legends: Mel Frank

The Godfather of Cultivation Knowledge

Jim Goodwin’s first writing about cannabis appeared in the “New York Flyer” supplement to Rolling Stone, Issue 91, September 16, 1971, in a two-part series titled “A Grow-Your-Own Guide for New Yorkers,” which outlined how to grow cannabis under fluorescent lights. The rest is history, as they say. When his editor asked him what his pseudonym was, he said that he didn’t have one, and his editor suggested that it may be a good idea considering that he was writing about marijuana cultivation. Jim told me that he looked down at his two cats, Melon and Frank, and decided that "Mel Frank" would be his pen name. 

After reading that article, Ed Rosenthal contacted Mel and proposed that they write a book together about cultivation. Mel agreed and in 1974, the Indoor/Outdoor Highest Quality Marijuana Growers Guide was published by Level Press in San Francisco. It went on to sell over a million copies (although Ed and Mel received very little of their earned royalties).

That same year, High Times started publishing and Mel Frank was the first to answer readers’ letters about growing. He went on to contribute articles and photographs for covers and for illustrating other authors’ articles for five decades. His last High Times article, a collaboration with K. from Trichome Technologies about concentrates, appeared in 2018.

 

MEL FRANK AS AN AUTHOR: 

1974, The Indoor/Outdoor Highest Quality Marijuana Growers’ Guide, Mel Frank and Ed Rosenthal, Level Press and And/Or Press 
1978, Marijuana Grower’s Guide: Deluxe Edition, Mel Frank and Ed Rosenthal, And/Or Press

 

MEL FRANK AS AN AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER: 

1988, Marijuana Grower’s Insider’s Guide, Mel Frank, Red Eye Press

1990, Marijuana Grower’s Guide Deluxe: Revised Edition, Mel Frank, Red Eye Press 
1997, Marijuana Grower’s Guide Deluxe: Revised Color Edition, Mel Frank, Red Eye Press
1998, HASHISH!, Robert C. Clarke, Red Eye Press
2000, Great Labor Quotations, Peter Bollen, Red Eye Press

2010, HASHISH!: Updated Second Edition, Robert C. Clarke, Red Eye Press 

In 1988, Mel sued his publisher and received all rights to his books. He started his own publishing company, Red Eye Press, which published this copy of Hashish! by Robert C. Clarke. Ten years later, the price for a copy of this book is well worth it if you can find one. 

 

Mel Frank has also been quite the cultivator throughout his career. Through the ’70s and early ’80s, he developed varieties such as Durban Poison and Afghan #1. Legend has it, Ed Rosenthal picked up some coffeeshop cannabis Amsterdam in 1977 which had some seeds. Ed gifted them to Mel, who grew them out and developed what is now known as Durban Poison. With a career in cannabis that has spanned 50 years, very few people have contributed as much to the cannabis culture as Mel Frank. 

 

 

As published in:
Grow Magazine, Vol.5 Issue 6
January 2021