Paperbacks from Hell [N.F. - Literature, Art]

SELECTED CREATOR AND PUBLISHER BIOGRAPHIES

Avon Books (founded 1941)

Established to challenge paperback powerhouse Pocket Books, Avon issued paperback reprints for the mass market, which means lots of mysteries, westerns, and nurse romances. The New Yorker called them “one of the most resolutely down-market of the major paperback imprints.” In 1969 they started printing original fiction. Their first blockbuster hit was Kathleen Woodiwiss’s bodice-ripper The Flame and the Flower, which sold 2.5 million copies. Avon was bought by Harper Collins in 1999.

Bantam Books (founded 1945)

Ian and Betty Ballantine were sent by Penguin UK to found Penguin in the United States. After parting ways with owner Allen Lane, they founded Bantam as the paperback arm of Grosset & Dunlap. In 1952 they were fired because the line was foundering. Oscar Dystel was hired and quickly turned things around, grabbing paperback rights to blockbusters like Catcher in the Rye, Jaws, and The Exorcist (he sold the hardcover rights to Blatty’s book to Harper & Row). By 1980 Bantam was the largest publisher of paperbacks in America. In 1998 it was merged into Random House.

Ballantine Books (founded 1952)

The next stop for Ian and Betty Ballantine, this paperback house was founded to release paperback and hardcover editions simultaneously but became famous for their fantasy and science fiction lines. Based on a recommendation from their switchboard operator, they picked up the paperback rights to The Lord of the Rings and got rich. Ballantine was acquired by Random House in 1973 and absorbed Fawcett in 1982.

Barker, Clive (born 1952)

This British-born author’s 1984 six-volume short story collection The Books of Blood rocked the horror market. He went on to direct Hellraiser and Nightbreed, both films based on his writings, and to write a lot of super-long dark fantasy novels like Weaveworld and The Great and Secret Show.

Berkley Books (founded 1955)

The editor-in-chief and the vice-president of Avon Books broke away and started this rival paperback company that became known for science fiction. In 1965 they became G. P. Putnam’s paperback arm. In 1982, Berkley struck gold with The Hunt for Red October and began publishing military thrillers. In 1996, Putnam was acquired by Penguin; Berkley is now an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Bloch, Robert (1917–1994)

The youngest of H. P. Lovecraft’s acolytes, Bloch was an enormously prolific writer, turning out hundreds of short stories, dozens of novels, and scripts for the original Star Trek and Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV shows. He wrote crime and horror but is best remembered for his 1959 novel Psycho, based on real-life murderer Ed Gein, a book that pioneered the psychological serial killer story.

Brautigam, Don (1946–2008)

Most famous for his Stephen King paperback covers, Brautigam delivered striking, iconic, sophisticated covers for Cujo, Firestarter, The Stand, and ’Salem’s Lot, plus the hand full of eyeballs on the paperback Night Shift. He’s also the man behind the album covers of Metallica’s Master of Puppets and Mötley Crüe’s Dr. Feelgood.

Conner, Jeff (born 1956)

After starting his career in a southern California record store, Conner launched his Scream/Press imprint in 1981, delivering beautiful limited-edition volumes of works by Stephen King, Richard Matheson, Ramsey Campbell, and Dennis Etchison, which often featured extensive illustrations. He was the first to publish Clive Barker’s Books of Blood in hardcover in the United States. Scream/Press wound down in 1992 as the horror market died.

Coyne, John (born 1937)

After writing a stack of unpublished novels, Coyne studied The Exorcist and delivered The Piercing (1979), a carefully calibrated knockoff about stigmata. Before its release, he wrote the novelization for the lukewarm 1978 horror movie The Legacy, which sold two million copies. The Piercing became a best seller in paperback, as did The Searing. His next book, Hobgoblin (1981), was a paperback original whose cover featured his name above the title. After The Shroud (1983), he married the editor of The Piercing and declared he was done with horror. He delivered the family saga Brothers and Sisters in 1986 before returning to horror for three books, and then he took a seventeen-year break from publishing. His next books were golf novels, published in 2007 and 2009.

Daniels, Les (1943–2011)

Between 1978 and 1991, Daniels wrote five historical vampire novels about Don Sebastian de Villanueva, a delightfully evil Spanish nobleman who keeps witnessing horrible historical events that make his vampirism seem comparatively benign (The Black Castle, The Silver Skull, Citizen Vampire, Yellow Fog, No Blood Spilled). Daniels is most famous as one of the first and best chroniclers of comic book history, possibly the result of his mom having thrown out his comic book collection when he was nine years old.

Dell Books (founded 1942)

One of the largest magazine and pulp publishers, Dell entered the paperback field under the guidance of long-term employee Helen Meyer, the first female president of a publishing house. It had several enormous hits (including Peyton Place); the company launched the Dial hardcover imprint to provide itself with source material. Dell was sold to Doubleday in 1976.

Eulo, Ken (born 1939)

The first book in this playwright-turned-novelist’s “stone” trilogy, The Brownstone (1980), feels like reheated Amityville but sold in the ballpark of one million copies and spawned two sequels, The Bloodstone (1981) and The Deathstone (1982).After Pocket Books dropped its horror line, Eulo published a few more horror paperback originals for Tor while also working as a staff writer for TV shows like The Golden Girls and Benson. He stopped publishing in the mid-’90s.

Farris, John (born 1936)

One of the B-list superstars of the ’70s and ’80s, Farris wrote lots of paperbacks (and a few hardcovers), including a trio of dark thrillers, before Playboy Press published his hit ESP novel The Fury in 1976. Brian De Palma directed the film adaptation two years later. Heralded for his mature style in books like All Heads Turn When the Hunt Goes By (1977) and Minotaur (1985), Farris is the very definition of the reliable, journeyman genre author with the occasional over-the-top touch, like a priest turned pro wrestler turned exorcist named Irish Bob O’Hooligan in Song of Endless Night.

Fawcett (founded 1919)

Originally a magazine publisher and distributor, Fawcett turned out lowbrow pulps and comics, until a 1945 deal with NAL to distribute their paperback reprints gave them the idea to publish their own paperback originals for casual readers. They started Gold Medal in 1950 to do just that, horrifying the guardians at the gates of culture. By paying higher royalties than the competition, Fawcett became the number two paperback publisher in America, with books by Vladimir Nabokov and Kurt Vonnegut on their list. In 1977 they were bought by a diversifying CBS, who sold their backlist in 1982 to Ballantine, effectively dismantling the company.

Gray, Linda Crockett (born 1943)

Writing under several different names, Gray has published about ten horror novels and five Harlequin romances. Her first book was Satyr (1979) for Playboy Press, and her stories veer wildly from sedate to lurid. Injuries from a car accident in 1990 curtailed her writing career, and she now teaches.

Jensen, Ruby Jean (1927–2010)

A constant presence in Zebra’s catalogue, Jensen was born in Missouri and started writing for Warner in 1974 with The House That Samael Built. After four gothic romances for them, she jumped to Manor Books and turned out three occult novels in 1978. Her horror novels, Hear the Children Cry (1981) and Such a Good Baby (1982), were published by Leisure and Tor, respectively, and in 1983 she settled down with Zebra Books for a 20-book run that started with Mama. A fairly perfunctory writer specializing in evil children, she was rewarded with Zebra’s first all-hologram cover (House of Illusions, 1988).

Klein, T.E.D. (born 1947)

Editor of Twilight Zone magazine from 1981 to 1985, Klein was an influential member of the northeastern horror community, like a less productive Charles L. Grant. Much less. His 1984 novel The Ceremonies took him five years to write and was hailed as a modern classic. His short story collection, Dark Gods, contains four novellas including the much-anthologized “Black Man with a Horn” and “Children of the Kingdom.” It is rumored that one day he’ll publish his long-delayed second novel, Nighttown, which was originally announced for publication in 1989.

Lory, Robert (born 1936)

Writing for Lyle Kenyon Engle’s book mill Book Creations, Lory delivered the eleven-installment men’s adventure series John Eagle: The Expeditor before writing The Dracula Horror Series, starting in 1973. In it, Dracula is forced to work for the forces of good thanks to the splinter of stake lodged next to his heart. In 1974 Lory pitched Engle a book of horror short stories about the zodiac, but Engle sold the Horrorscope series to Pinnacle as standalone novels. Lory didn’t enjoy writing them and Pinnacle canceled the series at book four. Lory’s day job is in advertising and consulting.

Martin, George R. R. (born 1948)

Before Game of Thrones Martin was, like Thomas Monteleone and Charles L. Grant, a science fiction guy who got into horror when the market was booming. His disconcerting 1979 novella Sandkings won the Hugo and Nebula awards, and his 1982 vampire novel, Fevre Dream, is considered a modern classic. Armageddon Rag, his 1983 novel about an occult ’60s band reuniting in the ’80s, was a commercial failure that temporarily ended his career as a novelist and sent him to Hollywood to become a television writer.

Manor Books (founded 1972)

One of the original giants of the true-confession magazine market, Macfadden Communications bought Hillman Publications in 1961 and begrudgingly absorbed its paperback publishing arm, which it then sold as Manor Books in 1972. Manor published cheap paperbacks, men’s adventure, and paranormal gothics until ceasing operations in 1981.

Matheson, Richard (1926–2013)

A more prolific and pulpier Ray Bradbury, Matheson is one of the cornerstones of twentieth-century American horror, with twenty-seven novels and more than one hundred short stories to his credit. He wrote teleplays for all the essentials—Star Trek, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and The Twilight Zone—and his three novels, I Am Legend, The Shrinking Man, and The Legend of Hell House, have all been adapted as movies. He’s written films for Roger Corman’s AIP and Britain’s Hammer Films, and Anne Rice and Stephen King have cited him as an influence.

Monteleone, Thomas F. (born 1946)

A chance encounter led to Monteleone and Charles L. Grant signing on as two of future super-agent Kirby McCauley’s first clients. Monteleone wrote a fistful of sci-fi paperback originals in the ’70s before turning to horror (at Grant’s prodding) in the ’80s. His nutty but effective genre mash-ups—particularly 1984’s Night Train and his 1987 werewolves-versus-the-mafia book, Fantasma—made him a midlist regular. In the early ’90s, Melissa Singer at Tor advised him to write a hardcover, and the result was Blood of the Lamb (1992), a high-concept thriller that hit big and rebranded Monteleone as a thriller writer.

Morrell, David (born 1943)

This Canadian novelist rocketed to attention with his debut First Blood (1972), which was denounced by Time magazine as “carnography” and made into a movie starring Sylvester Stallone. His next novel was the harrowing revenge thriller Testament (1975). Although his books contained only brief horrific elements, Morrell was considered part of the horror family throughout the ’70s. The Totem (1979) was his first “true” horror novel.

New American Library (founded 1948)

Established during the post–World War II paperback boom, NAL started as American Penguin but was bought and rebranded after Penguin gave up on the American market. Considered the intellectual publishing house, it nonetheless made a mint on Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer novels and turned James Bond into a literary franchise. In 1987 NAL merged with Penguin, and as of 2016 they only publish nonfiction under the merged Penguin Random House. Their imprints included Signet and Onyx.

New English Library (founded 1961)

When the Times Mirror Company of Los Angeles acquired NAL in 1960, they merged British paperback houses Ace and Four Square to form NEL. When Gareth Powell became managing director in 1964, they hit overdrive, pumping out pulpy books aimed at teenagers looking for cheap kicks. NEL milked the horror craze and teen market hard (their eighteen-volume Skinheads series ran from 1970 to 1980) with beautifully lurid covers. In 1981, they were sold to Hodder & Stoughton and became that publisher’s mass-market imprint until being discontinued in 2004.

Paperjacks (founded 1971)

The massive Canadian publishing and distribution company General Publishing launched Paperjacks to print mass-market fiction and nonfiction by Canadian authors. By 1978, it was releasing five books per month, including some American imports. By the mid-’80s Paperjacks was releasing four to six horror and science-fiction books each year. In 1989, the company was set to be acquired by Zebra Books, who pulled out of the sale at the last minute. Paperjacks was never heard from again.

Playboy Press (founded 1963)

Originally established to dump Playboy magazine joke books onto the market, Hugh Hefner’s book outfit hired Mike Cohn from NAL in 1971 to beef up its publishing program, ultimately releasing about thirty mass-market paperbacks per month. Founded with a focus on books for male readers, the line remained dormant until 1976, when it abandoned men and began targeting female readers with horror novels and bodice rippers. In 1982, Hefner’s daughter Christie became president of Playboy Enterprises and immediately sold the book business to Putnam.

Pinnacle Books (founded 1969)

Started by Dallas-based Michigan General Corporation (a mobile home and concrete pipe manufacturer), constantly cash-strapped Pinnacle specialized in romance and men’s adventure. Their first big hit was Don Pendleton’s The Executioner series (now on its 434rd installment). Throughout the ’70s, they were hobbled by disputes over ownership of the character, an FTC-vetoed merger with Harlequin Books, and an ill-fated four-year move to Los Angeles; in 1985, the company declared bankruptcy. Its backlist was bought by Windsor Publishing in 1988, and that same year Zebra revived Pinnacle as a horror imprint. It published a monthly horror title until Zebra discontinued that program around 1994. Pinnacle is now an imprint of Kensington, specializing in westerns and true crime.

Pocket Books (founded 1938)

Pioneer of the paperback revolution in America, Pocket made mass-market paperbacks cheap by dropping their size to the 4-by-7-inch format used today and substituting sewn binding with glue. These were the first paperbacks sold in drugstores and newsstands, and they were roundly mocked by the industry until their stellar sales figures came in. Simon & Schuster acquired Pocket in 1966 and made it the paperback imprint.

Popular Library (founded 1942)

Established as a mystery-only paperback house by pulp publisher Ned Pines, Popular Library was known for racy covers throughout the ’40s and ’50s. The first paperback house bought by CBS in 1971, it was sold to Warner Books in 1982.

Ptacek, Kathryn (born 1952)

Although born in Nebraska, Ptacek attended university in New Mexico, and many of her nineteen novels deal with the Southwest, Native Americans, and giant gila monsters, among them Gila! (1981, written as Les Simons), Shadoweyes (1984), and Kachina (1986). She was married to Charles L. Grant until his death and, like him, also works as an editor.

Russell, Ray (1924–1999)

Before The Exorcist, there was Russell’s inferior but eerily similar The Case against Satan (1963). His 1961 short story “Sardonicus” became the famous William Castle film Mr. Sardonicus, and his novel Incubus, about a demon killing women with his enormous penis, was made into the 1980 film Incubus, starring John Cassavetes.

Ryan, Alan (1943–2011)

Originally a book reviewer for the New York Times, Ryan entered the horror world when his short story “Sheets,” based on his Christmas temp job at Macy’s as a sheet salesman, was reprinted in the 1980 Year’s Best Horror anthology. Encouraged by Charles L. Grant, as well as his friends Thomas Monteleone and Jill Bauman, Ryan wound up selling his first paperback original, Panther! (1981), on proposal for $6,000. That was followed by The Kill (1982), Dead White (1983), Cast a Cold Eye (1984), and numerous short stories. He went silent in 1990 until 2011, when his novel Amazonas came out immediately before his death.

Saul, John (born 1942)

A paperback originals writer, Saul was a struggling playwright and staff member at a Wisconsin drug treatment facility in 1976 when Dell rejected one of his novels but asked if he’d write a psychological thriller instead. They bought his outline and he wrote Suffer the Children in twenty-eight days. Published in paperback, supported by a huge television ad campaign, it sold 1.2 million copies. Since then, Saul has published a best-selling book each year, usually about either children in peril or children killing people. His books typically sell about a million copies each.

Schoell, William (born 1951)

Between 1984 and 1989, Schoell wrote six paperback originals for Leisure (Bride of Satan, Saurian, The Dragon, Shivers, Late at Night, and Spawn of Hell), which remain C-grade delights, although he regretted the generic titles Leisure slapped on them. Schoell moved to St. Martin’s for The Pact (1988) and Fatal Beauty (1990), two titles that were left out in the cold when St. Martin’s closed its horror line almost overnight. Now Schoell writes nonfiction, including The Rat Pack (1998) and I Can Do Anything: The Sammy Davis Jr. Story (2004).

Sharman, Nick (born 1952)

Norwegian-born Scott Grønmark was head of publicity for NEL before writing eight books for them under his Nick Sharman pen name, starting with The Cats in 1977. Plotted more like murder mysteries than traditional horror, his last horror novel was Next! (1986), after which he began working for BBC Radio.

Straub, Peter (born 1943)

Similar in prominence to Stephen King in the ’70s and ’80s, Straub wrote big, fat books that became big, fat paperback best sellers, and he blurbed plenty of other horror writers. He began his career writing literary fiction but started writing horror with his third book, the ghost story Julia (1975); and his fifth book, Ghost Story (1979), was a huge hit. The massive sales are unusual for an elegant, understated writer whose prose is some of the most polished in horror fiction.

Teason, William (1922–2003)

One of the best-loved and most prolific cover artists in the business, Teason got his first big break when Dell hired him to paint a cover for one of its Agatha Christie titles. Dell was contractually forbidden from depicting the book’s characters on the cover, but Teason’s clue-based still life won approval and he wound up painting about 150 Christie covers for Dell. A master craftsman, sometimes called one of the best American illustrators nobody knows, he painted everything from fine art that hung in galleries to skeletons for Zebra Books.

Tem, Melanie (1949–2015)

After Melanie Kubachko and writer Steve Rasnic were married, both she and her husband adopted the surname Tem. Her early novels were all published by the Abyss line: Prodigal (1991), Blood Moon (1992), Wildling (1992), and Revenant (1994). Her work focuses on the horror found within families. She has fifteen novels to her name.

Tor Books (founded 1980)

When Tom Doherty left science-fiction publisher Ace Books, he immediately founded Tor, a paperback originals house with a focus on sci-fi. Tor was publishing 137 books a year by 1986, when it was sold to St. Martin’s Press due to cash-flow problems after its paperback distributor, Pinnacle Books, declared bankruptcy. Doherty stayed on at Tor, and the company remains a science-fiction imprint under Macmillan.

Tuttle, Lisa (born 1952)

Like a lot of writers of her generation, Tuttle started in science fiction as a respected short story writer, coauthoring Windhaven in 1981 with George R. R. Martin, and then moved to horror after one of her stories was included in Kirby McCauley’s groundbreaking Dark Forces anthology. Since then she’s bounced back and forth, with well-written novels like Familiar Spirit (1983) and Gabriel (1987) and her short story collection, Nest of Nightmares (1986). She remains the only person ever to refuse a Nebula Award.

Wallace, Patricia (born 1949)

Patricia Wallace wrote exclusively for Zebra between 1982 and 1992, turning out eleven titles that are either medical thrillers or children in peril novels (or sometimes both at the same time), including The Taint, The Children’s Ward, Monday’s Child, and The Water Baby. Between 1988 and 1994 she also wrote four Sydney Bryant mysteries about a private investigator. Her real name is Patricia Wallace Estrada.

Wheatley, Dennis (1897–1977)

With his first occult novel, The Devil Rides Out (1934), Wheatley established himself as the great British horror author of the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s selling a million copies every year. His novels, including To the Devil a Daughter (1953) and The Haunting of Toby Jugg (1948), have been made into films and are frequently reprinted with updated covers (The Devil Rides Out was reissued in paperback twelve times between 1969 and 1991). Wheatley was a deeply conservative snob who feared Britain would become a socialist state after his death.

Williamson, J. N. (1932–2005)

Gerald “Jerry” Neal Williamson was a prolific writer who never saw a trend he couldn’t imitate. He wrote forty novels, mostly for cellar-dwellers like Leisure and Zebra. His work included haunted house books (Ghost Mansion, 1981), creepy kid books (Playmates, 1982), and UFO books (Brotherkind, 1982), most of which were overwritten and underdeveloped pastiches of other novels. Occasionally one achieved a kind of lunatic grandiosity, mostly by accident (The Premonition, 1981; Brotherkind).

Wright, T. M. (1947–2015)

Terrance “Terry” Michael Wright started his career with the novel Strange Seed (published in hardcover in 1978 and as a paperback in 1980), which earned an enthusiastic blurb from Stephen King. Wright developed a midlist cult following over the course of twenty-four novels. His Manhattan Ghost Story (1984) and five Strange Seed books weave a quiet, off-kilter spell that may not appeal to all readers but is certainly disquieting

Yarbro, Chelsea Quinn (born 1942)

Named a Grand Master at the World Horror Convention in 2003, Yarbro is best known for her Saint-Germain vampire novels. Her Count Saint-Germain is a 4,000-year-old bloodsucker who is romantic and sexy, a gothic pinup boy whose convoluted chronology is tracked from ancient Egypt to postwar Paris over the course of approximately twenty-five novels, starting with Hotel Transylvania in 1978.