Ace Books

1952: Ace Doubles concept 's Conan the Conqueror. The novel on the reverse side was Leigh Brackett's The Sword of Rhiannon. Cover by Norman Saunders. Editor Donald A. Wollheim was working at Avon Books in 1952, but disliked his job. While looking for other work, he tried to persuade A. A. Wyn to begin a new paperback publishing company. Wyn was already a well-established publisher of books and pulp magazines under the name A. A. Wyn's Magazine Publishers. His magazines included Ace Mystery and Ace Sports, and it is perhaps from these titles that Ace Books got its name. Wyn liked Wollheim's idea but delayed for several months; meanwhile, Wollheim was applying for other jobs, including assistant editor at Pyramid Books. Pyramid mistakenly called Wyn's wife Rose for a reference, thinking Wollheim had worked for her. When Rose told her husband that Wollheim was applying for another job, Wyn made up his mind: he hired Wollheim immediately as an editor. The first book published by Ace was a pair of mysteries bound tête-bêche: Keith Vining's Too Hot for Hell, backed with Samuel W. Taylor's The Grinning Gismo, priced at 35 cents, with serial number D-01. A tête-bêche book has the two titles bound upside-down with respect to each other, so that there are two front covers and the two texts meet in the middle. This format is generally regarded as an innovation of Ace's; it was not, but Ace published hundreds of titles bound this way over the next twenty-one years. Books by established authors were often bound with those by lesser-known writers. Ace was "notorious for cutting text", in the words of bibliographer James Corrick: even some novels labeled "Complete and Unabridged" were cut. Isaac Asimov's The Stars Like Dust was one such: it was reprinted by Ace under the title The Rebellious Stars, and cuts were made without Asimov's approval. Similarly John Brunner repudiated the text of his novel ''Castaway's World'' because of unauthorized cuts to the text. The last Ace Double in the first series was John T. Phillifent's Life with Lancelot, backed with William Barton's Hunting on Kunderer, issued August 1973 (serial #48245). Although Ace resumed using the "Ace Double" name in 1974, the books were arranged conventionally rather than tête-bêche. 1953–1963: Genre specialization Ace's second title was a western (also tête-bêche): William Colt MacDonald's ''Bad Man's Return'', bound with J. Edward Leithead's Bloody Hoofs. By 1955, the company released more science fiction titles each year than in either of the other two genres, and from 1961 onward, science fiction titles outnumbered mysteries and westerns combined. Ace also published a number of lurid juvenile delinquent novels in the 1950s that are now very collectible, such as D-343, The Young Wolves by Edward De Roo and D-378, Out for Kicks by Wilene Shaw. Ace published, during this period, early work by Philip K. Dick, Gordon R. Dickson, Samuel R. Delany, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Roger Zelazny. 1964–1970: Financial struggles 's And Chaos Died (1970), from the first Ace Science Fiction Special series. Cover by Leo and Diane Dillon. In 1964, science fiction author Terry Carr joined the company, and in 1967, he initiated the Ace Science Fiction Specials line, which published critically acclaimed original novels by such authors as R. A. Lafferty, Joanna Russ and Ursula K. Le Guin. Carr and Wollheim also co-edited an annual ''Year's Best Science Fiction anthology series; and Carr also edited Universe, a well-received original anthology series. Universe'' was initially published by Ace, although when Carr left in 1971 the series moved elsewhere. In 1965, Ace published an unauthorized American paperback edition of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, believing that the copyright had expired in the U.S. Tolkien had not wanted to publish a paperback edition, but changed his mind after the Ace edition appeared, and an authorized paperback edition was subsequently published by Ballantine Books, which included on the back cover of the paperbacks a message urging readers not to buy the unauthorized edition. Ace agreed to pay royalties to Tolkien and let its still-popular edition go out of print. Wyn died in 1967, 1971–2015: Ace becomes a subsidiary Both Wollheim and Carr left Ace in 1971. Wollheim had made plans to launch a separate paperback house, and in cooperation with New American Library, Ace was reputedly the only profitable element of the Grosset & Dunlap empire by this time. Ace soon became the science fiction imprint of its parent company. Carr returned to Ace Books in 1984 as a freelance editor, launching a new series of Ace Specials devoted entirely to first novels. This series was even more successful than the first: it included, in 1984 alone, William Gibson's Neuromancer, Kim Stanley Robinson's The Wild Shore, Lucius Shepard's Green Eyes, and Michael Swanwick's In the Drift. All were first novels by authors now regarded as major figures in the genre. and Jim Baen, who left to work at Tor and who eventually founded Baen Books. Writers who have worked at Ace include Frederik Pohl and Ellen Kushner. In 1996, Penguin Group (USA) acquired the Putnam Berkley Group, and has retained Ace as its science fiction imprint. As of December 2012, recently published authors included Joe Haldeman, Charles Stross, Laurell K. Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds, and Jack McDevitt. ==People==

The following people have worked at Ace Books in various editorial roles. The list is sorted in order of the date they started working at Ace, where known. It includes editors who are notable for some reason, as well as the most recent editors at the imprint. • A. A. Wyn, owner (1952–1967) • Donald A. Wollheim, editor (1952–1971) • Pat LoBrutto, mail room (1969–1972); science fiction editor (1974–1977) • Frederik Pohl, executive editor (December 1971 – July 1972) • Tom Doherty, publisher (1975–1980) • Terri Windling, editor (1979–1987) • Harriet McDougal, editorial director • Susan Allison, editor (1980–1982); editor-in-chief (1982–2006); vice president (1985 – July 2015) • Beth Meacham, editorial assistant (1981–1982); editor (1982–1983) • Ginjer Buchanan, editor (1984–1987); senior editor (1987–1994); executive editor, science fiction and fantasy (1994 – January 1996); senior executive editor and marketing director (January 1996 – 2006); editor-in-chief (2006–2014). • Peter Heck (c. 1991–1992) • Laura Anne Gilman (c. 1991) • Lou Stathis, editor (? – c. 1994) • Anne Sowards, editorial assistant/associate editor (1996–2003); editor (2003 – February 2007), senior editor (from February 2007), executive editor (by September 2010) ==Ace nomenclature==

Until the late 1980s, Ace titles had two main types of serial numbers: letter series, such as "D-31" and "H-77", and numeric, such as "10293" and "15697". The letters were used to indicate a price. The following is a list of letter series with their date ranges and prices. • D-series: 35¢, 1952 to 1962. • S-series: 25¢, 1952 to 1956. • T-series: 40¢. This series is listed in Tuck's Encyclopedia, but he gives no examples in his index and there are none cited in other bibliographic sources. This series may, therefore, not exist. • F-series: 40¢, 1961 to 1967. • M-series: 45¢, 1964 to 1967. • G-series: 50¢, 1958 to 1960 (D/S/G series); 1964 to 1968 (later series). • K-series: various prices, 1959 to 1966. • H-series: 60¢, 1966 to 1968. • A-series: 75¢, 1963 to 1968. • N-series: 95¢, 1968. The first series of Ace books began in 1952 with D-01, a western in tête-bêche format: Keith Vining's Too Hot for Hell backed with Samuel W. Taylor's The Grinning Gismo. That series continued until D-599, Patricia Libby's Winged Victory for Nurse Kerry, but the series also included several G and S serial numbers, depending on the price. The D and S did not indicate "Double" (i.e., tête-bêche) or "Single"; there are D-series titles that are not tête-bêche, although none of the tête-bêche titles have an S serial number. Towards the end of this initial series, the F series began (at a new price), and thereafter there were always several different letter series in publication simultaneously. The D and S prefixes did not appear again after the first series, but the G prefix acquired its own series starting with G-501. Hence the eight earlier G-series titles can be considered part of a different series to the G-series proper. All later series after the first kept independent numbering systems, starting at 1 or 101. The tête-bêche format proved attractive to book collectors, and some rare titles in mint condition command prices over $1,000. Ace added a line of "singles" and the Ace Star series for larger and more expensive books (especially non-fiction). == References ==