Fantasy Press

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the American publisher of science fiction and fantasy. For the English publisher of poetry, see Fantasy Press (poetry).
logo for Fantasy Press

Fantasy Press was an American publishing house specialising in fantasy and science fiction titles. Established in 1946 by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach[1] in Reading, Pennsylvania, it was most notable for publishing the works of authors such as Robert A. Heinlein and E. E. Smith.[1] One of its more notable offerings was the Lensman series.

Among its books was Of Worlds Beyond: The Science of Science Fiction Writing (1947),[2] which was the first book about modern SF and contained essays by John W. Campbell, Jr., Robert A. Heinlein, A. E. van Vogt and others.

History

Lloyd Arthur Eshbach ordered a copy of Skylark of Space from its publisher, the Buffalo Book Company, in 1945 or 1946.[3] Like many of Buffalo's customers, Eshbach was frustrated by Buffalo's delays in publishing and lack of marketing, an area that Eschbach had some expertise in, from his job as a copywriter for Glidden. He wrote to the Buffalo Book Company offering suggestions as to how they could better market their books. Thus started a correspondence between Eshbach and Tom Hadley, of Buffalo and later of the Hadley Publishing Company. While never an employee of Hadley, Eshbach helped him with his marketing efforts and as a result ended up with a copy of the mailing list of Haley's customers.[4] With two of his co-workers from Glidden and one other friend of theirs, Eshbach used the mailing list to start Fantasy Press. He approached E. E. Smith to obtain the rights to Spacehounds of IPC. Smith was enthusiastic[3] and Spacehounds of IPC became the first title published by the new press. Eshbach eventually bought out his partners and operated the press for several years on his own.[3] Ultimately, Fantasy Press was under capitalized and sales declined in the face of competition from the mainstream publishers. Eshbach wrote his authors and reverted the rights to their books while he took a job with a religious publishing house in Myerstown, Pennsylvania.[3]

Imprints

Polaris Press was a subsidiary imprint of Fantasy Press that was created in 1952.[3] Eschbach created the imprint in order to publish books he felt didn't quite fit under the Fantasy Press imprint.[5] Ultimately, only two titles were ever issued under the Polaris Press imprint.[3]

Works published by Fantasy Press

Works published by Polaris Press

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Clute, John; Peter Nicholls (1995). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. p. 411. ISBN 0-312-13486-X. 
  2. ↑ Chalker, Jack L.; Mark Owings (1998). The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998. Westminster, MD and Baltimore: Mirage Press, Ltd. p. 235. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Eshbach, Lloyd Arthur (1983). Over My Shoulder: Reflections on a Science Fiction Era. Philadelphia: Oswald Train. pp. 109–138. OCLC 10489084. 
  4. ↑ Chalker, Jack L.; Mark Owings (1998). The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998. Westminster, MD and Baltimore: Mirage Press, Ltd. p. 342. 
  5. ↑ Chalker, Jack L.; Mark Owings (1998). The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998. Westminster, MD and Baltimore: Mirage Press, Ltd. p. 524. 

References

  • Chalker, Jack L.; Mark Owings (1998). The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998. Westminster, MD and Baltimore: Mirage Press, Ltd. pp. 232–242, 524. 
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.