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47-609: (Redirected from Wollheim ) Wolheim , Walheim , and similar names may refer to: People [ edit ] Donald A. Wollheim , American science fiction writer Donald Walheim , American heavyweight boxer Louis Wolheim , American character actor Norbert Wollheim , American accountant and tax advisor Rex J. Walheim , American pilot and astronaut Richard Wollheim , British philosopher Places [ edit ] Walheim , Germany Walheim, Haut-Rhin Topics referred to by

94-548: A Galaxy Bookshelf award "for doing his job". Upon Wollheim's death in 1990, the prolific editor Robert Silverberg argued ( above ) that he may have been " the most significant figure" in American SF publishing. Robert Jordan credited Wollheim for helping to launch Jordan's career. Wollheim made an offer for Jordan's first novel, Warriors of the Ataii , though he withdrew the offer when Jordan requested some minor changes to

141-567: A group from Philadelphia on October 22, 1936, in Philadelphia. The modern Philcon convention claims descent from this event. Out of this meeting, plans were formed for regional and national meetings, including the first-ever Worldcon . Wollheim was a member of the New York Science Fiction League, one of the clubs established by Hugo Gernsback to promote science fiction. When payment was not forthcoming for

188-459: A lasting marriage and publishing partnership. The Futurians became less fan-oriented and more professional after 1940. Its conferences and workshops focused on writing, editing, and publishing, with many of its members interested in all three. Wollheim's first story, "The Man from Ariel", was published in the January 1934 issue of Wonder Stories when he was nineteen. He was not paid for

235-442: A minimum. The constitution was again revised in 1958 (also by Speer) to incorporate amendments, bylaws, and practices adopted since 1947. Another major revision occurred in 2001 under the oversight of Robert Lichtman (Secretary-Treasurer since 1986 and still holding that office), clarifying and conforming constitutional requirements with actual practice. During the 1950s and 1960s FAPA was so popular and membership so sought after that

282-565: A number of British writers, including E. C. Tubb , Brian Stableford , Barrington Bayley , and Michael Coney , a new American audience. He published translations of international sf as well as anthologies of translated stories, Best From the Rest of the World. With the help of Arthur W. Saha , Wollheim also edited and published the popular "Annual World's Best Science Fiction" anthology from 1971 until his death. Algis Budrys in 1966 gave Wollheim

329-470: A year. When needed, there are elections (in August) of a secretary-treasurer and official editor. Other officials have included Official Critics, a Laureate Committee, President, Vice-President, and ballot counters. The first two positions were abandoned by the mid-1940s, and in 2009 the positions of President and Vice-President were also eliminated. The President Emeritus is the author Robert Silverberg , who

376-489: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Donald A. Wollheim Donald Allen Wollheim (October 1, 1914 – November 2, 1990) was an American science fiction editor , publisher, writer , and fan . As an author, he published under his own name as well as under pseudonyms, including David Grinnell , Martin Pearson , and Darrell G. Raynor . A founding member of

423-452: Is evidence that this last was originally intended to be the first issue of a new magazine. Between 1947 and 1951 he was editor at the pioneering paperback publisher Avon Books , where he made available highly affordable editions of the works of A. Merritt , H. P. Lovecraft , and C. S. Lewis ' Silent Planet space trilogy, bringing these previously little known authors a wide readership. During this period he also edited eighteen issues of

470-618: The Catskills of upstate New York . Carpenter, Humphrey , ed. (2023) [1981]. The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien : Revised and Expanded Edition . New York: Harper Collins . ISBN   978-0-35-865298-4 . Fantasy Amateur Press Association Like other APAs, FAPA is primarily an agency for distributing to its members publications published by its members at their own expense. FAPA has "mailings" every three months. Members are required to be active in some way — writing or publishing — and produce at least eight pages of activity

517-602: The Futurians , he was a leading influence on science fiction development and fandom in the 20th-century United States. Ursula K. Le Guin called Wollheim "the tough, reliable editor of Ace Books , in the Late Pulpalignean Era, 1966 and '67", which is when he published her first two novels in Ace Double editions. The 1979 first edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction calls Wollheim "one of

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564-467: The 1975 World Fantasy Convention. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted him in 2002, its seventh class of two deceased and two living persons. He is the third person inducted primarily for his work as editor or publisher, after the inaugural 1996 pair Hugo Gernsback and John W. Campbell . Source: Wollheim also actively practiced cross-dressing as a woman throughout his life, and he regularly attended events at Casa Susanna in

611-499: The FAPA." In 1938, with several friends, he formed the Futurians —arguably the best-known of the science fiction clubs. At one time or another, the membership included Isaac Asimov , Frederik Pohl , Cyril Kornbluth , James Blish , John Michel , Judith Merril , Robert A. W. Lowndes , Richard Wilson , Damon Knight , Virginia Kidd , and Larry T. Shaw . In 1943 Wollheim married fellow Futurian Elsie Balter (1910–1996). It proved to be

658-521: The Mighty Fallen (1974), owing to its homosexual content, Wollheim fought vigorously against their decision, and they relented. His later author discoveries included Tanith Lee , Jennifer Roberson , Michael Shea , Tad Williams , Celia S. Friedman , and C. J. Cherryh , whose Downbelow Station (1982) was the first DAW book to win the Hugo Award for best novel. He was also able to give

705-618: The November 1938 mailing to fill the 50-member roster. The membership limit was raised to 65 in 1943 and has remained at that level ever since. The early years of FAPA were stormy with party politics and sociological feuds (as recounted in the late Jack Speer 's pioneering fan history, Up to Now ). In 1947, Speer reformed the constitution, and the Insurgents quashed the last inactive OE, Elmer Perdue. Since then official troubles have mostly not disturbed FAPA, and red tape has been held to

752-460: The Rings in three volumes. It was the first mass-market paperback edition of Tolkien's epic. Wollheim did not consider himself a fantasy fan. In a 2006 interview his daughter, Betsy Wollheim, said: When he called up Professor Tolkien in 1964 and asked if he could publish Lord of the Rings as Ace paperbacks, Tolkien said he would never allow his great works to appear in so 'degenerate a form' as

799-407: The Rings was then published in November, 1965. Ace subsequently agreed to cease publishing the unauthorized edition and to pay Tolkien for their sales following a grassroots campaign by Tolkien's U.S. fans. A 1993 court determined that the copyright loophole suggested by Ace Books was invalid and its paperback edition was found to have been a violation of copyright under U.S. law (at this time,

846-637: The September 1935 issue. His third known story was published in Fanciful Tales of Time and Space , Fall 1936, a fanzine that he edited himself. That year he also published and edited another short-lived fanzine, Phantagraph . Wollheim's stories were published regularly from 1940; at the same time he was becoming an important editor. In the 1950s and 60s he wrote chiefly novels. He usually used pseudonyms for works aimed at grownups, and wrote children's novels under his own name. Notable and popular were

893-655: The U.S. had yet to join the International Copyright Convention , and most laws on the books existed to protect domestic creations from foreign infringement. Houghton Mifflin was technically in violation of the law when they exceeded their import limits and failed to renew their interim copyright). In the Locus obituary for Donald Wollheim, however, more details emerge: Houghton-Mifflin had imported sheets instead of printing their own edition, but they didn't want to sell paperback rights. Ace printed

940-535: The United States. So, incensed by Tolkien's response, he realized that he could legally publish them and did. This brash action (which ultimately benefited his primary competitors) was really the Big Bang that founded the modern fantasy field, and only someone like my father could have done that. He did pay Tolkien, and he was responsible for making not only Tolkien but Ballantine Books extremely wealthy. He

987-448: The circumstances: Unfortunately, when Wyn died [in 1968] the company was sold to a consortium headed by a bank. ... Few of them had any publishing experience before they found themselves running Ace. It showed. Before long, bills weren't being paid, authors' advances and royalties were delayed, budgets were cut back, and most of Donald's time was spent trying to soothe authors and agents who were indignant, and had every right to be, at

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1034-453: The contract. Jordan claimed that Wollheim's first, 'laudatory' letter convinced him that he could write, and so he chose to remember the first letter and forget about the second. The novel was never published, but Jordan went on to write the immensely successful The Wheel of Time series for a different publisher. Marion Zimmer Bradley referred to him as "a second father", Frederick Pohl called him "a founder", and Robert Silverberg says he

1081-808: The differences between Poul Anderson 's Ace novel War of the Wing-Men and its definitive revised edition, The Man Who Counts . Among the authors who made their paperback debuts in Ace Doubles were Philip K. Dick , Samuel R. Delany , Leigh Brackett , Ursula K. Le Guin , and John Brunner . William S. Burroughs ' first book, Junkie , was published as an Ace Double. Wollheim also helped develop Marion Zimmer Bradley , Robert Silverberg , Avram Davidson , Fritz Leiber , Andre Norton , Thomas Burnett Swann , Jack Vance , and Roger Zelazny , among others. While at Ace, he and co-editor Terry Carr began an annual anthology series, The World's Best Science Fiction ,

1128-614: The eight "Mike Mars" books for children, which explored different facets of the NASA space program. Also well-received were the "Secret" books for young readers: The Secret of Saturn's Rings (1954), Secret of the Martian Moons (1955), and The Secret of the Ninth Planet (1959). As Martin Pearson he published the "Ajax Calkins" series, which became the basis for his novel Destiny's Orbit (1962). A sequel, Destination: Saturn

1175-419: The first and most vociferous SF fans." He published numerous fanzines and co-edited the early Fanciful Tales of Time and Space . His importance to early fandom is chronicled in the 1974 book The Immortal Storm by Sam Moskowitz and in the 1977 book The Futurians by Damon Knight. Wollheim organized an event later considered the first American science fiction convention, when a group from New York met with

1222-472: The first collection of what they considered the best of the prior year's short stories, from magazines, hardcovers, paperback collections and other anthologies. In the early 1960s Ace reintroduced Edgar Rice Burroughs' work, which had long been out of print, and in 1965, Ace bought the paperback rights to Dune (Herbert's title worried Wollheim, who feared it would be mistaken for a western). Eventually, Ace introduced single paperback books and became one of

1269-455: The first paperback edition and caused such a furor that Tolkien rewrote the books enough to get a new copyright, then sold them to Ballantine. The rest is history. Although Ace and Wollheim have become the villains in the Tolkien publishing gospel, it's probable that the whole Tolkien boom would not have happened if Ace hadn't published them. Wollheim left Ace in 1971. Frederik Pohl describes

1316-645: The first story he sold to Gernsback, Wollheim formed a group with several other authors, and successfully sued for payment. He was expelled from the Science Fiction League as "a disruptive influence" but was later reinstated. From the September 1935 issue of Gernsback's Wonder Stories : THREE MEMBERS EXPELLED It grieves us to announce that we have found the first disloyalty in our organization... These members we expelled on June 12th. Their names are Donald A. Wollheim, John B. Michel, and William S. Sykora—three active fans who just got themselves onto

1363-599: The influential Avon Fantasy Reader as well as three of the Avon Science Fiction Reader . These periodicals contained mostly reprints and a few original stories. In 1952 Wollheim left Avon to work for A. A. Wyn at the Ace Magazine Company and spearheaded a new paperback book list, Ace Books . In 1953 he introduced science fiction to the Ace lineup, and for 20 years as editor-in-chief

1410-453: The long wait. By the '70s the waiting list became much smaller, and in more recent years (since the mid 1990s) has disappeared altogether. Additionally, the number of members has also shrunk as existing members died or otherwise dropped off the roster. As of August 2019, there were 17 active participants. FAPA continues to operate in the 21st Century as a connection to fandom's past, and a way for fans to timebind with those who came before. Find

1457-596: The magazines were successful. He approached some of his fellow Futurians for free stories (some published under pseudonyms to protect their reputations with paying editors). It resulted in Wollheim's editing two of the earliest periodicals devoted to science fiction, the Cosmic Stories and Stirring Science Stories magazines starting in February 1941. After the magazines were cancelled later in 1941, Wollheim

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1504-461: The paperback book. Don was one of the fathers of the entire paperback industry, since before he spearheaded the Ace line he was the originating editor-in-chief of the Avon paperback list in 1945, so he took this personally. He was very offended. He did a little research and discovered a loophole in the copyright. Houghton Mifflin, Tolkien's American hardcover publisher, had neglected to protect the work in

1551-408: The preeminent genre publishers. Ace and Ballantine dominated sf in the 1960s and built the genre by publishing original material as well as reprints. Prior to the 1960s, no large American paperback publisher would publish fantasy. It was believed that there was no public demand for it and that it would not sell. Wollheim published an unauthorized paperback edition of J. R. R. Tolkien 's The Lord of

1598-410: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Wolheim . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wolheim&oldid=544543325 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

1645-556: The story, and when he learned that other authors had not been paid either, he said so in the Bulletin of the Terrestrial Fantascience Guild. Publisher Hugo Gernsback eventually settled with Wollheim and the other authors out of court for $ 75. However, when Wollheim submitted another story ("The Space Lens") under the pseudonym Millard Verne Gordon, he was once again cheated by Gernsback who published it in

1692-476: The title. It included works by Robert A. Heinlein , Theodore Sturgeon , T. S. Stribling , Stephen Vincent Benét , Ambrose Bierce , and H. G. Wells . In 1945 Wollheim edited the first hardcover anthology from a major publisher and the first omnibus, The Viking Portable Novels of Science . He also edited the first anthology of original science fiction, The Girl With the Hungry Eyes (1947), although there

1739-476: The waiting list grew to monumental proportions, for a period of time exceeding the number of membership slots on the FAPA roster. A waiting list fee was instituted to cover the cost of sending the Fantasy Amateur to so many fans awaiting membership, and a requirement that waiting listers periodically acknowledge receipt of the Fantasy Amateur was begun in order to weed out those who lost interest during

1786-735: The way they were treated. Upon leaving Ace, he and his wife, Elsie Balter Wollheim, founded DAW Books , which he named for his initials. DAW can claim to be the first mass market specialist science fiction and fantasy fiction publishing house. DAW issued its first four titles in April 1972. Most of the writers whom he had developed at Ace went with him to DAW: Marion Zimmer Bradley, Andre Norton, Philip K. Dick, John Brunner, A. Bertram Chandler , Kenneth Bulmer , Gordon R. Dickson , A. E. van Vogt , and Jack Vance . In later years, when his distributor, New American Library , threatened to withhold Thomas Burnett Swann 's Biblical historical fantasy How Are

1833-399: The whole post-Tolkien boom in fantasy fiction." In late 1940, Wollheim noticed a new magazine titled Stirring Detective and Western Stories on the newsstands. He wrote to the publishers, Albing Publications, to see if they were interested in adding a science fiction title to their list, and he was invited to meet them. They did not have capital, however, and only guaranteed him a salary if

1880-501: The wrong road. In 1937 Wollheim founded the Fantasy Amateur Press Association , whose first mailing (July 1937) included this statement from him: "There are many fans desiring to put out a voice who dare not, for fear of being obliged to keep it up, and for the worry and time taken by subscriptions and advertising. It is for them and for the fan who admits it is his hobby and not his business that we formed

1927-438: Was "seriously underrated" and "one of the great shapers of science-fiction publishing in the United States". In 1977 scholar Robert Scholes named Wollheim "one of the most important editors and publishers of science fiction." From 1975 on, Wollheim received several special awards for his contributions to science fiction and to fantasy, including one at the 1975 World SF Convention and runner-up to Ian & Betty Ballantine at

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1974-420: Was able to find another publisher, Manhattan Fiction Publications, and a fourth issue of Stirring appeared, dated March 1942. Wartime constraints prevented ongoing publication, and there were no more issues of either title. Wollheim edited the first science fiction anthology to be mass-marketed, The Pocket Book of Science Fiction (1943). It was also the first book containing the words "science fiction" in

2021-554: Was bitter about that, and frankly that's probably why he never got the Hugo he wanted. But if he hadn't done it, who knows when — or if — those books would have been published in paperback? This account was disputed by Tolkien, who claimed that he never received any communication from Ace prior to publication of their version. In any case, Tolkien had previously authorized paperback editions of The Hobbit and Tree and Leaf . The authorized Ballantine paperback edition of The Lord of

2068-422: Was fair to middling at best. He always knew that his great talent was as an editor." Robert Silverberg said that Wollheim was "one of the most significant figures in 20th century American science fiction publishing," adding, "A plausible case could be made that he was the most significant figure—responsible in large measure for the development of the science fiction paperback, the science fiction anthology, and

2115-477: Was published in 1967 in collaboration with Lin Carter . The Universe Makers (1971) is a discussion of themes and philosophy in science fiction. One of Wollheim's short stories, "Mimic", was made into the film of the same name by director and co-writer Guillermo del Toro , released in 1997. His daughter Betsy declared: "In true editorial fashion, he was honest about the quality of his own writing. He felt it

2162-478: Was responsible for their multi-genre list and, most important to him, their renowned sf list. Wollheim invented the Ace Doubles series which consisted of pairs of books, usually by different authors, bound back-to-back with two "front" covers. Because these paired books had to fit a fixed total page length, one or both were usually abridged to fit, and Wollheim often made other editorial alterations—as witness

2209-461: Was the last serving President and who has been an active member of FAPA longer than any other current member. When necessary, a teller for the annual officer elections was appointed by the secretary-treasurer. FAPA's original constitutional limit was 50 members to accommodate publishers using hectographs . There were 21 members listed on the roster of the first mailing in August 1937; it took until

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