Jove Books, formerly known as Pyramid Books, is an American
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, ...
and
eBook
An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. A ...
publishing imprint, founded as an independent paperback house in 1949 by Almat Magazine Publishers (also known as Almat Publishing Corporation) (Alfred R. Plaine and Matthew Huttner). The company was sold to the
Walter Reade Organization in the late 1960s. It was acquired in 1974 by
Harcourt Brace
Harcourt () was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. It was known at different stages in its history as Harcourt Brace, & Co. and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. From 1919 to 1 ...
(which became Harcourt Brace Jovanovich) which renamed it to Jove in 1977 and continued the line as an
imprint. In 1979, they sold it to The Putnam Berkley Group, which is now part of the
Penguin Group
Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media company, media Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a Mergers and acquisitions, mer ...
.
History
1949–1969
Phil Hirsch was vice president of Pyramid Books from 1955 to 1975 and had his name as author or editor on many of Pyramid's books, many of them anthologies of jokes, cartoons and humor, or concerned with the military and warfare, including some which combined those interests.
While not the most prolific publisher of science fiction and fantasy during its years as Pyramid, it did offer some notable original titles in book form, such as
Algis Budrys
Algirdas Jonas "Algis" Budrys (January 9, 1931 – June 9, 2008) was a Lithuanian-American science fiction author, copy editing, editor and critic. He was also known under the pen names Frank Mason, Alger Rome in collaboration with Jerome ...
's novel ''Who?'' (1958),
Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon (; born Edward Hamilton Waldo, February 26, 1918 – May 8, 1985) was an American author of primarily fantasy fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and Horror fiction, horror, as well as a critic. He wrote approximately 400 ...
's novel ''Venus Plus X'' (1960) and several collections of Sturgeon's short fiction, as well as collections, novels and anthologies by
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave science fiction, New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. His published wo ...
and
Judith Merril. Pyramid speculative fiction editor (1957–67)
Donald R. Bensen edited two notable and popular anthologies drawn from the fantasy-fiction magazine ''
''Unknown'','' ''The Unknown'' (1963) and ''The Unknown 5'' (1964), the latter including an introduction by and a previously unpublished story by
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov ( ; – April 6, 1992) was an Russian-born American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. H ...
, the story having been slated for publication by the magazine, which folded before it could appear. Pyramid in the 1960s also published several notable anthologies edited by
L. Sprague de Camp, which helped create a sense of a tradition of
sword & sorcery fantasy, and a series of four anthologies drawn from the magazine ''
Weird Tales'', attributed to magazine publisher and editor
Leo Margulies, though the latter two apparently "ghost-edited" by
Sam Moskowitz (Margulies and Moskowitz would in the 1970s launch a short-lived revival of the magazine). Among the notable paperback reprint editions Pyramid published in the 1950s and '60s were several collections by
Robert Heinlein,
Hal Clement's novel ''Mission of Gravity'', and de Camp and
Fletcher Pratt
Murray Fletcher Pratt (25 April 1897 – 10 June 1956) was an American people, American List of science fiction authors, writer of history, science fiction, and fantasy. He is best known for his works on naval history and the American Civil War an ...
's ''The Incompleat Enchanter''. Pyramid also published
Evan Hunter's science fiction novel ''Tomorrow and Tomorrow'' (1956 as by Hunt Collins), and a paperback reprint of
Shirley Jackson's novel ''The Road through the Wall'' (1956) in two editions with the variant title ''The Other Side of the Street'' (the first in 1958). Notable among the original publications in crime fiction were ''Death is My Dancing Partner'' (1959), a late novel by
Cornell Woolrich, and such anthologies as ''The Young Punks'' (also 1959) attributed to Leo Margulies as editor.
In the 1960s Pyramid published two of the first three books attributed to
Cordwainer Smith, one of the fiction-writing pseudonyms of
Paul Linebarger, and began reprinting
Fu Manchu novels by
Sax Rohmer and pulp sf adventure novels by
E. E. Smith, as well as several
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 ...
s of
Irwin Allen
Irwin Allen (born Irwin O. Cohen; June 12, 1916 – November 2, 1991) was an American film and television producer and director, known for his work in science fiction, then later as the "Master of Disaster" for his work in the disaster film genr ...
television shows and films, including one for ''
Lost in Space'' and two others for ''
The Time Tunnel
''The Time Tunnel'' is an American color science-fiction television series written around a theme of time travel adventure; it starred James Darren and Robert Colbert. The show was creator-producer Irwin Allen's third science-fiction televisi ...
'', and Sturgeon's movie novelization for ''
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea''. Other original book publications in the 1960s included the first of
Harry Harrison's
Stainless Steel Rat novels (1961),
Avram Davidson's ''Masters of the Maze'' (1965) and
Chester Anderson's cult novel ''The Butterfly Kid'' (1967). Asimov and the biologist
John C. Lilly were among those who published popular-science books with Pyramid in the 1960s. They have also the simplified English edition books published by their division Ladder Edition, example is “Battle Hymn” by Dean Hess (1956).
1970–present
Among the notable projects at Pyramid in the 1970s was a series of reprints of the pulp magazine novels and novellas about
the Shadow
The Shadow is a fictional character created by American magazine publishers Street & Smith and writer Walter B. Gibson. Originally created to be a mysterious radio show narrator and developed into a distinct literary character in 1931 by Gibs ...
, published as by
Maxwell Grant; Ellison in 1975 and '76 saw an eleven-volume set of his books reprinted or, in the cases of ''The Other Glass Teat'' and ''No Doors, No Windows'' (both 1975), published for the first time, in matching cover format featuring the art of
Leo and Diane Dillon. Also, a brief "Harlan Ellison Discovery" series of books, as edited for Pyramid (and, for the last volume, Jove) by Ellison, featured
Bruce Sterling's first novel ''
Involution Ocean'' (1977) and
Terry Carr's collection ''The Light at the End of the Universe'' (1976). But the most prominent and best-selling books Pyramid published in the 1970s were the series of historical novels written by
John Jakes, the
Kent Family Chronicles, beginning with ''The Bastard'' (1974), which were well-timed for popular interest in the U.S.
Revolutionary War and the bicentennial celebration of independence. More modest or more critical than commercial successes published in the decade included ''Man on Fire: A Novel of Revolution'' by Bruce Douglas Reeves (1971) and several novels by
Barry N. Malzberg.
A series of "crossover" books, bridging prose fiction and
comics
a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...
, was the eight-volume ''
Weird Heroes'' series of anthologies and novels (1975–77), where new superheroes and pulp-magazine-style adventure heroes were featured, as edited for Pyramid by
Byron Preiss, and featuring contributions from, among others, Ellison,
Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer (January 26, 1918 – February 25, 2009) was an American author known for his science fiction and fantasy fiction, fantasy novels and short story, short stories.
Obituary.
Farmer is best known for two sequences of novels, t ...
,
Jeff Jones,
Archie Goodwin,
Michael Moorcock,
Beth Meacham,
Jim Steranko
James F. Steranko (; born November 5, 1938) is an American graphic artist, comics artist, comic book writer/artist, comics historian, Illusionist, magician, publisher and film production illustrator.
His most famous comic book work was with th ...
,
Ted White and novels as well as short fiction by
Ron Goulart. Another Preiss project with Pyramid was in more-traditional, if early,
graphic novel
A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...
format, the ''
Fiction Illustrated'' series.
The Jove branding was refocused not long after the purchase by the Putnam Berkeley Group, away from fantastic fiction generally and more toward crime fiction, further publication of John Jakes's and similar historical fiction, romance novels (including some with fantasy elements), and western series novels, such as the
Longarm (book series) franchise; among the last notable fantasy-fiction titles as an HBJ/Jove Book was the 1979 variant edition of
Robert Bloch
Robert Albert Bloch (; April 5, 1917September 23, 1994) was an American fiction writer, primarily of crime fiction, crime, psychological horror fiction, horror and Fantasy Fiction, fantasy, much of which has been dramatized for radio, cinema and ...
's collection ''Pleasant Dreams'', which varies in content from all previous editions (but like them, includes Bloch's fleshing out of an unfinished short story by
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...
, originally published as "The Light-House" in 1953).
References
External links
Hyde Park Books: Paperback Publishers: Pyramid BooksISFDB
{{Authority control
Book publishing companies based in New York (state)
Publishing companies established in 1949