Ian Keith Ballantine (February 15, 1916 – March 9, 1995) was an American publisher who founded and published the paperback line of
Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books is a major American book publisher that is a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Ballantine was founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. Ballantine was acquired by Random House in ...
from 1952 to 1974 with his wife,
Betty Ballantine. The Ballantines were both inducted by the
Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2008, with a shared citation.
[
]
Biography
Born in New York City, the son of Stella Commins Ballantine (half-niece of anarchist Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) was a Russian-born Anarchism, anarchist revolutionary, political activist, and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europ ...
) and the Scottish actor and sculptor Edward James Ballantine, Ian Ballantine received his undergraduate degree from Columbia College and his graduate degree from the London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...
. His Master's thesis featured the possibilities of paperback printing.[
In 1939, the year of his marriage to Elizabeth "Betty" Norah, he initiated the distribution of ]Penguin Books
Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...
in the United States (Penguin U.S. was later renamed New American Library
The New American Library (also known as NAL) is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948. Its initial focus was affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works as well as popular and pulp fiction, but it now publi ...
). As a team, the Ballantines were involved in the formation of Bantam Books
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin Jr., Sidney B. K ...
in 1945, and he was the first president of Bantam from 1945 to 1952.
Ballantine Books was one of the earliest publishers of science fiction paperback originals, with writers including Arthur C. Clarke and Frederik Pohl
Frederik George Pohl Jr. (; November 26, 1919 – September 2, 2013) was an American list of science fiction authors, science-fiction writer, editor, and science fiction fandom, fan, with a career spanning nearly 75 years—from his first ...
. During the 1960s, they published the first authorized paperback edition of J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''.
From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...
's books. Lin Carter
Linwood Vrooman Carter (June 9, 1930 – February 7, 1988) was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor, poet and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft (for an H. P. Lov ...
edited their Ballantine Adult Fantasy series
The Ballantine Adult Fantasy series was an imprint of American publisher Ballantine Books. Launched in 1969 (presumably in response to the growing popularity of Tolkien's works), the series reissued a number of works of fantasy literature which ...
of classics by H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft (, ; August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American writer of Weird fiction, weird, Science fiction, science, fantasy, and horror fiction. He is best known for his creation of the Cthulhu Mythos.
Born in Provi ...
and others in the 1970s.
From 1968 through 1975 Ballantine Books published a series of 156 paperbook books under the series title "Ballantine's Illustrated History of World War II", later retitled "Ballantine's Illustrated History of the Violent Century". These were printed in both the United States and United Kingdom.
In the 1980s, Bantam books published an 18 book series on the Vietnam war in the same trade paperback format as the earlier Ballantine series, featuring color photographs.
After Ballantine Books was acquired by Random House
Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...
in 1973, the Ballantines became freelance consulting editors and publishers during the 1970s. Ian and Betty Ballantine won one special World Fantasy Award
The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year at the eponymous ann ...
for professional work in 1975 and another one shared with Joy Chant and other creators of ''The High Kings'' (Bantam, 1983), a reference book on the Matter of Britain
The Matter of Britain (; ; ; ) is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the list of legendary kings of Britain, legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Art ...
that incorporates retellings. (It was also a runner-up in nonfiction Hugo and Locus Award
The Locus Awards are an annual set of literary awards voted on by readers of the science fiction and fantasy magazine '' Locus'', a monthly magazine based in Oakland, California. The awards are presented at an annual banquet.
Originally a poll ...
categories.)[ Their son Richard Ballantine was an author and journalist specializing in cycling topics.
Ballantine Books has a backlist of more than 3,000 titles, and its imprints include Ballantine Books, Ballantine Reader's Circle, Del Rey, Del Rey/LucasBooks, Fawcett, Ivy, One World and Wellspring.
Ian Ballantine was 79 when he died of a heart attack in 1995.]
References
Citations
General and cited references
20th Century Great American Business Leaders: Ian K. Ballantine
Harvard Business School.
* Goldman, Emma, ''Living My Life'' (Alfred Knopf, Inc., New York 1931).
External links
* — identical to its
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ballantine, Ian
1916 births
1995 deaths
20th-century American businesspeople
Alumni of the London School of Economics
American book publishing company founders
American paperback book publishers (people)
Ballantine family
Columbia College (New York) alumni
Penguin Books people
Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductees