Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Saturday February 07 2015, @11:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the future-reading dept.

Clay Latimer writes at IBD that Ian Ballantine, called by many the father of the mass-market paperback, helped change American reading habits in the 1940s and '50s founding no fewer than three prestigious paperback houses — Penguin USA, Bantam Books and Ballantine Books. But Ballantine's greatest influence on mass culture was publishing science-fiction paperback originals, with writers including Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, Theodore Sturgeon, and Frederik Pohl and publishing the first authorized paperback editions of J.R.R. Tolkien's books. "These were great classics of world fiction," says Loren Glass. "He published in original form some of the greatest works in the golden age of science fiction. One of the interesting things about Ballantine is that he was not only a businessman trying to make money in books; he was a student of literature and publishing, and something of an intellectual."

Turning serious science fiction into a literary genre ranks among Ballantine's greatest feats. Prior to Ballantine Books, science fiction barely existed in novel form. He changed that with the 1953 publication of "Fahrenheit 451," the firm's 41st book. "That was obviously a key moment in the history of science-fiction publishing," Glass says. In 1965, when Tolkien's rights to his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy lapsed, Ace Books published his books without paying royalties and Tolkien responded by conducting a personal campaign against Ace. Tolkien began to urge the fans who wrote to him to inform them that the American copies were pirated: "I am now inserting in every note of acknowledgement to readers in the U.S.A. a brief note informing them that Ace Books is a pirate, and asking them to inform others." Ballantine quickly bought the rights and included Tolkien's back-cover note: "Those who approve of courtesy (at least) to living authors will purchase it and no other."

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 07 2015, @05:53PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 07 2015, @05:53PM (#142249)

    Ian Ballantine's son Richard wrote about bicycling, most notably Richard's Bicycle Book from 1972. This was an important book during the 70's bicycle boom in the USA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ballantine [wikipedia.org]

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Nuke on Saturday February 07 2015, @11:48PM

    by Nuke (3162) on Saturday February 07 2015, @11:48PM (#142325)

    Ballantine's son Richard wrote about bicycling, most notably Richard's Bicycle Book

    Yes I browsed through that book once. It seemed a pointless book because the advice he gave was to do the sort of ham-fisted bodges that chimpanzees would have done anyway without the book; and anyone who knew better would have ignored it

    His father was a publisher - so that explains how it got published.