Lancer Books
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Lancer Books was a line of paperback books published in the 1960s and 1970s by Irwin Stein and Walter Zacharius. In 1954, Stein and his wife Helen had entered the magazine field with their Royal Publications which published Our Life and Celebrity from Royal's East 44th Street offices. In 1955, he added Infinity and Suspect Detective Stories (which became Science Fiction Adventures with its fifth issue). In 1958-59, Stein published two monster magazines, Monster Parade and Monsters and Things.
As various genre magazines vanished from newsstands, Stein decided to leave the magazine field for paperbacks. He launched Lancer Books in June 1961. Larry Shaw, who had edited Infinity returned as the editor at Lancer, which was noted for its fantasy and science fiction, such as Jack Williamson's The Humanoids.
[edit] Genres
Frank Frazetta began doing covers for Lancer Books with The Secret People, and he followed with Ted White's Phoenix Prime (1966) and covers for Lancer's series of Robert E. Howard Conan the Barbarian series, the first appearance of all Howard tales about his sword and sorcery hero in paperback. In addition to the science fiction and heroic fantasy, Lancer also published private-eye adventure with strong sexual themes and gothic romances such as Shadows (1970) by Jan Alexander (pseudonym for Victor J. Banis. Lesbian fiction authors published by Lancer included Rea Michaels (Duet in Darkness, Cloak of Evil), Sylvia Sharon (pseudonym used by Paul Little) and Florence Stonebraker. [1]
Along with true crime and espionage titles, Lancer also published books of social commentary, such as The Angry Black, edited by John Williams, and pop culture, such as The Beatle Book. Some Lancer paperbacks had mauve or green edges. The firm went bankrupt in the mid-1970s, but Stein continued as a book packager into the 1980s. Zacharius went on to found Kensington Books in 1974 and write the WWII novel, The Memories We Keep (2005).
