The Ballantine Adult Fantasy series was an imprint of 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 were out of print or dispersed in back issues of pulp magazines (or otherwise not easily available in the United States), in cheap paperback form—including works by authors such as William Morris, Lord Dunsany, Ernest Bramah, Hope Mirrlees, and James Branch Cabell. The series lasted until 1974.
The series has been considered a high-water mark in fantasy publishing. Envisioned by the husband-and-wife team of Ian and Betty Ballantine, it was produced under the editorship of Lin Carter. It also featured cover art by illustrators such as Gervasio Gallardo, Bob Pepper, Robert LoGrippo, and David McCall Johnston. The agreement signed between the Ballantines and Carter on November 22, 1968 launched the project. In addition to the reprints making up the bulk of the series, some new fantasy works were published, as well as a number of original collections and anthologies put together by Carter, and Imaginary Worlds, his general history of the modern fantasy genre.
The series was never considered a money-maker for Ballantine, although the re-issue of several of its titles both before and after the series' demise shows that a number of individual works were considered successful. The Ballantines supported the series as long as they remained the publishers of Ballantine Books, but with their sale of the company to Random House in 1973 support from the top was no longer forthcoming, and in 1974, with the end of the Ballantines' involvement in the company they had founded, the series was terminated.
After the termination of the Adult Fantasy series, Ballantine continued to publish fantasy, but concentrated primarily on new titles, with the older works it continued to issue being those with proven track records. In 1977 both its fantasy and science fiction lines were relaunched under the Del Rey Books imprint, under the editorship of Lester and Judy-Lynn del Rey. Carter continued his promotion of the fantasy genre in a new line of annual anthologies from DAW Books, The Year's Best Fantasy Stories, also beginning in 1975. Meanwhile, the series' lapsed mission of restoring classic works of fantasy to print had been taken up on a more limited basis by the Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library, launched in 1973.
Read more about Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series: The Series
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