Badger Books - History

History

"John Spencer" was the pseudonym of Samuel Assael (born 1920), who set up his London-based publishing company in 1947. Initially Spencer's output consisted of pulp magazines, mainly in the science fiction genre (with titles like Futuristic Science Stories, Tales of Tomorrow *and Wonders of the Spaceways). However, with the decline of the pulp magazine and rise of the paperback, Spencer switched to paperback publishing in the mid-1950s. He used a number of imprints, including "John Spencer", "Cobra" and "Badger", but the last of these has become the best known. The Badger Books imprint was discontinued in 1967 although Spencer continued to produce a small number of books (often reprints) until the late 1970s.

In common with other "pulp" or mass-market publishers of the time, Badger Books focused on quantity rather than quality. A new title in each of the major genres appeared each month, generally written to tight deadlines by low-paid authors. One of the most remarkable facts about Badger Books is that much of its outputs was produced by just two authors (using a range of house names and other pseudonyms): John Glasby (over 300 novels and short stories) and Lionel Fanthorpe (over 200 novels and stories).

The company was based at 131 Brackenbury Road, Hammersmith. It ran on a shoestring with Mr Assael overseeing everything. The accounts were overseen by Assaels partner Maurice Nahum. Employees numbered only three, all young men. One worked in the office with Nahum and the other two packed books. David Andersen (the source of this information) worked for this company between 1961 and 1963 mostly in the office with Maurice Nahum.