Ballantine Books is a major American book

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

that is a subsidiary of German media conglomerate

Bertelsmann The Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, commonly known as Bertelsmann (), is a German privately held company, private multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, ...

. Ballantine was founded in 1952 by

Ian Ballantine Ian Keith Ballantine (February 15, 1916 – March 9, 1995) was an American publisher who founded and published the paperback line of Ballantine Books from 1952 to 1974 with his wife, Betty Ballantine. The Ballantines were both inducted by the ...

with his wife, Betty Ballantine. Ballantine 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, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann in 1998 and remains part of that company. Ballantine's original logo was a pair of mirrored letter Bs back to back, later changing to two Bs stacked to form an elaborate gate. The firm's early editors were

Stanley Kauffmann Stanley Kauffmann (April 24, 1916 – October 9, 2013) was an American writer, editor, and critic of film and theater. Career Kauffmann started with ''The New Republic'' in 1958 and contributed film criticism to that magazine for the next 55 ye ...

and Bernard Shir-Cliff.

History

Following

Fawcett Publications Fawcett Publications was an American publishing company founded in 1919 in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, by Wilford Hamilton "Captain Billy" Fawcett (1885–1940). It kicked off with the publication of the bawdy humor magazine ''Captain Billy's Whiz ...

' controversial 1950 introduction of Gold Medal

paperback A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, also known as wrappers, and often held together with adhesive, glue rather than stitch (textile arts), stitches or Staple (fastener), staples. In contrast, ...

originals rather than reprints, Lion Books, Avon and Ace also decided to publish originals. In 1952, Ian Ballantine, a founder 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 ...

, announced that he would "offer trade publishers a plan for simultaneous publishing of original titles in two editions, a

hardcover A hardcover, hard cover, or hardback (also known as hardbound, and sometimes as casebound (At p. 247.)) book is one bookbinding, bound with rigid protective covers (typically of binder's board or heavy paperboard covered with buckram or other clo ...

'regular' edition for bookstore sale, and a paper-cover, 'newsstand' size, low-priced edition for mass market sale." When the first Ballantine Book,

Cameron Hawley Elmer Cameron Hawley (September 19, 1905 – February 9, 1969) was an American writer of fiction from Howard, South Dakota. Much of Hawley's output concerned the pressures of modern life, particularly in a business setting. He published numero ...

's ''Executive Suite'', was published in 1952, the publishing industry saw that the simultaneous hardcover and paperback editions were obvious successes.

Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...

published the $3.00 hardcover at the same time Ballantine distributed its 35¢ paperback. By February 1953, Ballantine had sold 375,000 copies and was preparing to print 100,000 more. Houghton Mifflin sold 22,000 hardback copies in its first printing. Ballantine's sales soon totaled 470,000 copies. Instead of hurting hardback sales as some predicted, the paperback edition instead gave the book more publicity. After the film rights were sold to

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

Robert Wise Robert Earl Wise (September 10, 1914 – September 14, 2005) was an American filmmaker. He won the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture for his musical films ''West Side Story'' (1961) and ''The Sound of Music'' (1965). He was als ...

directed the 1954 film, nominated for four Academy Awards. On the heels of that kind of sales and publicity, other Ballantine titles were seen in spinner racks across the country. ''Executive Suite'' was followed by

Hal Ellson Harold "Hal" Ellson (1910 – October 31, 1994 in Brooklyn)
in ''

's ''The Golden Spike'' (#2), Stanley Baron's ''All My Enemies'' (#3),

Luke Short Luke Lamar Short (January22, 1854September8, 1893) was an American Old West gunfighter, cowboy, U.S. Army scout, dispatch rider, gambler, boxing promoter, and saloon owner. He survived numerous gunfights, the most famous of which were aga ...

's ''Saddle by Starlight'' (#4, also with Houghton Mifflin), Ruth Park's ''The Witch's Thorn'' (#5, also with Houghton Mifflin), Emile Danoen's ''Tides of Tide'' (#6),

Frank Bonham Frank Bonham (February 25, 1914 – December 16, 1988) was an author of Westerns and young adult novels. Bonham wrote 48 novels, as well as TV scripts. Bonham was born in Los Angeles. He was a UCLA graduate. Bonham was known for his works f ...

's ''Blood on the Land'' (#7),

Al Capp Alfred Gerald Caplin (September 28, 1909 – November 5, 1979), better known as Al Capp, was an American cartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comic strip ''Li'l Abner'', which he created in 1934 and continued writing and (w ...

's ''The World of Li'l Abner'' (#8, with Farrar, Straus & Young) and LaSelle Gilman's ''The Red Gate'' (#9).

Science fiction and fantasy books

During the early 1950s, Ballantine attracted attention as one of the leading publishers of paperback

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

, beginning with ''

The Space Merchants ''The Space Merchants'' is a 1952 science fiction novel by American writers Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth. Originally published in ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' magazine as a serial entitled ''Gravy Planet'', the novel was first published ...

'' (#21). The Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth novel had first appeared in ''

Galaxy Science Fiction ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published in Boston from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by a French-Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break into the American market. World Edi ...

'' under the title ''Gravy Planet''. Kauffman scored when he acquired and edited

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury ( ; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, Horror fiction, horr ...

's ''

Fahrenheit 451 ''Fahrenheit 451'' is a 1953 Dystopian fiction, dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury. It presents a future American society where books have been outlawed and "firemen" Book burning, burn any that are found. The novel follows in the ...

'' (originally in ''Galaxy'' as a shorter version, "The Firemen"). Ballantine's science fiction line also included the unusual ''

Star Science Fiction Stories A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

''. With cover paintings by

Richard Powers Richard Powers (born June 18, 1957) is an American novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology. His novel ''The Echo Maker'' won the 2006 National Book Award for Fiction.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 ...

, it attracted readers by successfully combining the formats of both magazines and paperbacks. In the early 1960s, the company engaged in a well-known rivalry with

Ace Books Ace Books is a publisher of science fiction (SF) and fantasy books founded in New York City in 1952 by A. A. Wyn, Aaron A. Wyn. It began as a genre publisher of mystery fiction, mysteries and western (genre), westerns, and soon branched out int ...

for the rights to reprint the works 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 ...

and

Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American writer, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best known for creating the characters Tarzan (who appeared in ...

in paperback form. Ballantine prevailed in the struggle for the Tolkien work, with their editions of Tolkien's ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually d ...

'' including a message on the back cover from Tolkien himself urging consumers to buy Ballantine's version and boycott "unauthorized editions" (i.e. the version from Ace Books). A separate Canadian edition of the books was published with different front cover art work. Tolkien asked for (and received) permission to add the back cover message. Betty Ballantine recalled: "And we did put a little statement on the back covers saying that Ace was not paying royalties to Professor Tolkien, and everybody who admired ''Lord of the Rings'' should only buy our paperback edition. Well, everybody got behind us. There was literally no publication that did not carry some kind of outraged article. And of course, the whole science fiction fraternity got behind the book; this was their meat and drink." In 1969,

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 the

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 ...

, which brought a number of rare titles back into print, as well as launching Katherine Kurtz's ''Deryni'' series. During the mid-1970s, Ballantine published the ''Star Trek Logs'', a ten-volume series of

Alan Dean Foster Alan Dean Foster (born November 18, 1946) is an American writer of fantasy and science fiction. He has written several book series, more than 20 standalone novels, and many novelizations of film scripts. Career ''Star Wars'' Foster was the ghost ...

adaptations of the animated ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

''. In 1968, Ballantine published a non-fiction book related to ''

'', ''The Making of Star Trek'' by Stephen E. Whitfield and

Gene Roddenberry Eugene Wesley Roddenberry Sr. (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American television screenwriter and producer who created the science fiction series and fictional universe ''Star Trek.'' Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up ...

. In 1976, Ballantine published the

novelization A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book, or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent ...

of a forthcoming

film, '' Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker'' by

George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker and philanthropist. He created the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founded Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairman ...

( ghostwritten by

). The book, like the film ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

'' released the following year, was an enormous success and sold out its initial print run. In the first three months, Ballantine sold 3.5 million copies.

Cartoons, comics and humor books

After publishing ''The World of Li'l Abner'', Ballantine introduced

Shel Silverstein Sheldon Allan Silverstein (; September 25, 1930 – May 10, 1999) was an American writer, cartoonist, songwriter, and musician. Born and raised in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, Silverstein briefly attended university before being drafted into ...

in 1956 with his ''Grab Your Socks!'' collection of cartoons from '' Pacific Stars and Stripes''. As an editor at Ballantine during the 1950s and 1960s, Bernard Shir-Cliff handled the

Zacherley John Zacherle ( ; sometimes credited as John Zacherley; September 26, 1918 – October 27, 2016) was an American television host, radio personality, singer, and voice actor. He was best known for his long career as a television horror host, oft ...

anthologies, the paperback of

Hunter Thompson Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author, regarded as a pioneer of New Journalism along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, and Tom Wolfe. He rose to prom ...

's '' Hell's Angels'',

Harvey Kurtzman Harvey Kurtzman (; October 3, 1924 – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and editor. His best-known work includes writing and editing the parodic comic book ''Mad (magazine), Mad'' from 1952 until 1956, and writing the ...

's ''The Mad Reader'' and other early '' Mad'' paperbacks. He made four contributions to ''Mad'' and other magazines edited by Kurtzman. In 1956, Shir-Cliff edited a humor anthology, ''The Wild Reader'', for Ballantine, including essays, poems and satirical pieces by

Robert Benchley Robert Charles Benchley (September 15, 1889 – November 21, 1945) was an American humorist, newspaper columnist and actor. From his beginnings at ''The Harvard Lampoon'' while attending Harvard University, through his many years writing essays ...

Art Buchwald Arthur Buchwald (; October 20, 1925 – January 17, 2007) was an American humorist best known for his column in ''The Washington Post''. At the height of his popularity, it was published nationwide as a syndicated column in more than 500 newspape ...

Tom Lehrer Thomas Andrew Lehrer (; born April 9, 1928) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, satirist, and mathematician, who later taught mathematics and musical theater. He recorded pithy and humorous, often Music and politics, political songs that ...

, John Lardner,

Shepherd Mead Shepherd Mead, born Edward Mead (April 26, 1914 – August 15, 1994) was an American writer and is best known as the author of ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (book), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,'' which w ...

Ogden Nash Frederic Ogden Nash (August 19, 1902 – May 19, 1971) was an American poet well known for his Light poetry, light verse, of which he wrote more than 500 pieces. With his unconventional rhyme, rhyming schemes, he was declared by ''The New York T ...

, S. J. Perelman, Frank Sullivan,

James Thurber James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist, and playwright. He was best known for his gag cartoon, cartoons and short stories, published mainly in ''The New Yorker'' an ...

and others. The 154-page paperback was illustrated with cartoons by

Kelly Freas Frank Kelly Freas (August 27, 1922 – January 2, 2005) was an American people, American artist known for his work in science fiction and fantasy, with a career spanning more than 50 years. He was known as the "Dean of Science Fiction Artists" ...

who also did the front cover. Another contributor to both Ballantine and the Kurtzman magazines was the cartoonist-author Roger Price. He did two humor books for Ballantine. ''I'm for Me First'' (1954) details Herman Clabbercutt's plan to launch a revolutionary political party known as the "I'm for Me First" Party. ''In One Head and Out the Other'' (1954) popularized the

catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

"I had one grunch, but the eggplant over there." The nonsense non sequitur was immediately adopted by science fiction fandom, appearing occasionally in fanzines, as noted in ''Fancyclopedia II'' (1959). Ballantine has also been the publisher of books featuring Jim Davis' comic strip ''

Garfield ''Garfield'' is an American comic strip created by Jim Davis (cartoonist), Jim Davis. Originally published locally as ''Jon'' in 1976 (later changed to ''Garfield'' in 1977), then in nationwide Print syndication, syndication from 1978, it chro ...

'' since 1980.

Ballantine authors

* Steve Berry * Allison Brennan * Suzanne Brockmann *

Terry Brooks Terence Dean Brooks (born January 8, 1944) is an American writer of fantasy fiction. He writes mainly high fantasy, epic fantasy, and has also written two film novelizations. He has written 23 New York Times Best Seller List, ''New York Times'' ...

* Harriet Brown * Jack L Chalker * Meg Waite Clayton *

Bill Dedman Bill Dedman is an American investigative reporter and author. He is best known for ''The Color of Money'', his 1988 investigation of redlining of middle-income black neighborhoods by banks and other mortgage lenders. Dedman received the 1989 Pu ...

* Carol S. Dweck *

Julie Garwood Julie Elizabeth Garwood ( Murphy; December 26, 1944 – June 8, 2023) was an American writer of over twenty-seven romance novels in both the historical romance, historical and suspense subgenres. Over thirty-five million copies of her books are ...

Tess Gerritsen Tess Gerritsen (born Terry Tom; June 12, 1953) is the pseudonym of Terry Gerritsen, an American novelist and retired general physician. Early life Tess Gerritsen is the child of a Chinese immigrant and a Chinese-American seafood chef. While grow ...

* Emily Giffin *

Tommy Hilfiger Thomas Jacob Hilfiger ( ; born March 24, 1951) is an American fashion designer and the founder of Tommy Hilfiger (company), Tommy Hilfiger Corporation. After starting his career by co-founding a chain of jeans/fashion stores called People's P ...

Linda Howard Linda S. Howington (born August 3, 1950 in Alabama, United States) is an American best-selling romance/suspense author under her pseudonym Linda Howard. Biography Howington began to write at nine years old, and wrote for twenty years for her ...

Charlie Huston Charlie Huston is an American novelist, screenwriter and comic book writer. His twelve novels span several genres from crime to horror to science fiction. His books have been published in English by Ballentine, Del Rey, Mulholland and Orion, and ...

Jonathan Kellerman Jonathan Seth Kellerman (born August 9, 1949) is an American novelist and psychologist known for his mystery novels featuring the character Alex Delaware, a child psychologist who consults for the Los Angeles Police Department. Born on the Low ...

* Demetria Martinez *

C. Wright Mills Charles Wright Mills (August 28, 1916 – March 20, 1962) was an American Sociology, sociologist, and a professor of sociology at Columbia University from 1946 until his death in 1962. Mills published widely in both popular and intellectual jour ...

* Anne Perry * Elizabeth Rosner * Jeff Shaara * Angus Wells

Book series

* Ballantine Books * Ballantine's Classic Library of Science Fiction * Ballantine's Illustrated History of the Car * Ballantine's Illustrated History of World War II (published in U.K. as: The Pan/Ballantine Illustrated History of World War II); later retitled as: Ballantine's Illustrated History of the Violent Century * Ballantine Walden Edition * Beagle Books * Comstock Editions * Mockingbird Books * The Pan/Ballantine Illustrated History of the First World War

Imprints

* Ballantine Books * Ballantine Reader's Circle * Comstock Editions * Del Rey * Del Rey/LucasBooks * Fawcett * Ivy * Mockingbird Books * One World * Presidio Press * Wellspring

Explanatory footnotes

References

External links

*
Finding aid to Ian and Betty Ballantine Books and Business Records at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

at bookscans.com

{{Authority control American speculative fiction publishers Book publishing companies based in New York (state) Publishing companies based in New York City Publishing companies established in 1952 Random House Fantasy book publishers Science fiction publishers Ballantine family