The Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series Is a Fantasy Genre History Lesson

Paperback publisher Ballantine Books played a pivotal role in the development and popularization of the fantasy genre. Its Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series of 83 old and new fantasy titles published between 1965 and 1974 introduced many mainstream readers to the genre and set the stage for the genre's rapid growth over the past 50 years.
This video is an overview of the paperback book series and its impact. In future videos, I'll explore in more depth individual authors and books included in the series. Note also that I've defined the book series broadly to include titles that are closely associated with the series even though, officially, they weren't part of it.
0:01 Fantasy's mid-century stigma
2:10 Ballantine's opportunity
5:24 Overview of the books
6:14 Tolkien books
7:53 Authors who influenced Tolkien
9:15 Tolkien's contemporaries
10:38 Early fantasy precursors
12:15 Exotic cultures & adventures
16:11 Weird & uncanny fiction
17:48 New authors and works
19:20 Anthologies
21:05 What happened to BAFS?
22:15 Aftermath
24:24 Ballantine's impact
26:04 Collectability
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[@blazemordly9746]

if this man isn't recording audio books for the ASMR audience, there is no hope for humanity.

[@thelibraryladder]

I don't know anything about ASMR, but I am planning to record some audiobook versions of classic stories later this year. I did a couple of spooky stories for Halloween last October and uploaded them here on my channel if you're interested. Thanks!

[@ThomasD66]

@@thelibraryladder The audio, as audio, is quite nice and would work quite well as off screen narrative. Otherwise it does not match the visual of a man in a room speaking to a camera. It sounds more like a man in a sound dead studio speaking carefully into a screened condenser microphone with pronounced bass balance. As such it is a jarring contrast. Otherwise it was a most informative video. thank you.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks for the feedback! Out of curiosity, would you have felt the same way about the audio in my video if it had been a scene from a movie or tv show instead? Is the jarring contrast you experienced caused by your expectations about what KZbin videos tend to sound like? I ask because my recording setup is comparable to what professional filmmakers use in similar indoor environments. I'm not filming on a phone or with a cheap lavalier mic. Instead, I'm aiming for a higher level of production quality in my videos that approximates that of professional documentary filmmakers. :)

[@ThomasD66]

@@thelibraryladder As a simple example I would suggest viewing clips from Dances with Wolves and note the contrast between the audio of Costner's dialogue, which is always ambient in quality and the narrative, which is not. I get what you are aiming for, but you seem a bit off the mark in terms of what you have achieved because the audio does not seem to match the video. It does not sound like a guy in a ordinary room who happens to have some background music playing in that room. It sounds (and looks) more like a well executed overdub. One there is a total lack of reverb and two your tone, while pleasant is unnaturally bass heavy for an ambient setting. To the viewer it should sound like we are sharing the room, this video does not.

[@TreforTreforgan]

@@thelibraryladder we need more content makers with your narration style, not less

[@vol94]

The Gormenghast books are criminally underrated. I haven't finished the trilogy but the prose is awesome and the atmosphere is so whimsical

[@thelibraryladder]

I think the stylistic and narrative uniqueness of the Gormenghast books can make them harder to appreciate for many readers accustomed to modern fantasy novels with straightforward narratives and strong propulsive action. The rather bizarre atmosphere in the books can overshadow the story in my experience. I struggled with Titus Groan the first time I attempted to read it decades ago because it wasn't at all what I was expecting. I wanted to take the story at face value, but my rational brain kept rebelling. On reread years later (and with a greater appreciation of different styles of storytelling), I was able to adapt myself to the trilogy and the story it contains much better, and I found a lot to enjoy.

[@vol94]

@@thelibraryladder well said. Gormenghast is what the prevelant style of fantasy could have been. I prefer the modern style of fantasy as well and also struggled at first with titan groan due to the bizzare story beats and really stylised writing style but there is much to appreciate here once you progress through the series.

[@wbmac1958]

Titus Alone may prove disappointing once you get to it... But the other two are great.

[@wellesradio]

I'll say it outright, Gormenghast is too damn advanced for the average fantasy reader. Mervyn Peake is a writer's writer. Popular tastes will come and go, but those books will always be quietly studied and preserved. Edit: I should say I came to appreciate fantasy only after a long time. I always thought it a juvenile genre in the unflattering sense, but Terry Pratchett's Colour of Magic changed all that for me because he could poke fun at it and showed us that there was meat there to begin with.

[@rolanddeschain9880]

Prose is very outdated and hard to read even in that time gormenghast was written Victorian style of writing was not popular and it was fading

[@Bluecho4]

Man, these covers are gorgeous. There's something about the 60s and 70s, in terms of evocative fantasy art, that modern fantasy novel covers fail to match.

[@josephnash2081]

If you want to get thoroughly educated in the Fantasy Genre pre J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, the Ballantine adult fantasy series is a must read. It was the greatest service to fandom that Lin Carter ever did. Many of these books are in the public domain, and if you google up the list, most of them can be found free, on-line.

[@terrystewart1973]

I agree. I was introduced to so must great fantasy writing through this series when I was a kid growing up, and still have a large number of these books on my shelves

[@ericsierra-franco7802]

Pre-Tolkien? Not much Pre-Tolkien.

[@terrystewart1973]

​@@ericsierra-franco7802 That's simply not true. Here's a list of just some of the rich and hugely varied world of Fantasy before Tolkien The Blazing World (1666) by Margaret Cavendish On of the earliest fantasies, The Blazing World is the satirical depiction of a utopian kingdom inhabited by various races of talking animals. Readers of Alan Moore's 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' will be familiar with the place Vathek (1786) by William Beckford. Written in the style of the Arabian Nights, an early example of Orientalism The Shaving of Shagpat (1856) by George Meredith. Another one written in the style of the Arabian Nights, George Elliot was enthusiastic about this interesting early fantasy Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women (1858) by George MacDonald A hugely influential work for later authors such as C S Lewis, the story follows Anodos and his journey through the dreamlike Fairy Land which acts as a spiritual quest. Morris wrote several other highly regarded novels in the genre, including 'Lilith' (1895), the children's books 'The Princess and the Goblin' (1872) and 'The Princess and Curdie' (1883) and a number of short stories, often collected together for example in 'Evenor' in the Ballantine series Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864) by Jules Verne Verne wrote many early science fiction novels, but also quite a few fantasies as well, his best and most well known being 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' the first, as far as I know, of many, set inside a hollow Earth, inhabited by a variety of prehistoric creatures and lost civilizations. Other (sort of) fantasies by Verne include 'The Castle in Transylvania', an inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula of 1897. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by Lewis Carroll This and its sequel 'Through the Looking-Glass' (1872) a hugely famous, and don't really need describing. But Lewis also wrote 'The Hunting of the Snark' (1876), and 'Sylvie and Bruno' (1889), and its sequel 'Sylvie and Bruno Concluded (1893) in the genre. Vril, the Power of the Coming Race (1870) by Edward Bulwer-Lytton This story of superior subterranean master races powered the energy form called "Vril", was hugely popular in Victorian England, especially those inclined to Madam Blavatsky's theosophy. Inspired the name of Bovril. Erewhon (1872) by Samuel Butler A political satire as much as a fantasy, Erewhon ('Nowhere' backward) is a mirror with which Butler exposes what he sees as the faults of the Victorian society he lived in The Cuckoo Clock (1877) by Mrs Molesworth Writing children's fantasy much as the more well know E. Nesbit, the small heroine of the story, Griselda, is befriended by a magical cuckoo from a cuckoo clock, who transports her to a series of fantasy worlds

[@terrystewart1973]

(con) Vice Versa (1882) by F. Anstey A humorous novel set in Victorian times that starts off with businessman Paul Bultitude lecturing his son Dick on how schooldays are the happiest years of a boy's life, and how he wishes he were the one going off to school instead of Dick. Unfortunately for Paul Bultitude, Paul is carrying a magic stone from India that grants wishes, and Paul becomes a boy much to the amusement of Dick, who as he's the one holding the stone, wishes to become a man identical to how Paul previously looked. The boy Paul is then dispatched to a boarding school run by the cane-wielding headmaster, Dr. Grimstone. Bultitude, where he finds out how happy those days are. So sort of an early version of the film 'Freaky Friday', the first of many body-swapping fantasies. She: A History of Adventure (1887) by H. Rider Haggard One of his first of many fantasy novels, very much of the 'Lost World' genre. Filmed several times and is very popular The Twilight of the Gods and Other Tales (1888) by Richard Garnett A collection of humorous short stories set in various parts of the ancient and medieval world. First published in 1888 Garnett kept adding additional tales in subsequent editions. Ardath (1889) by Marie Corelli Corelli was hugely popular in her time, and several of her books were turned into films in the early silent era; now she is largely forgotten. Ardath itself is a story of reincarnation and mystical romance between the hero, the poet Theos Alwyn and his 'spiritual affinity', the maiden, Edris on the field of Ardath near Babylon. Peter Ibbetson (1891) by George du Maurier Written by the grandfather of Daphne du Maurier, this is an odd fantasy about two lovers who can meet only in dreams, but here they live out their lives together. Very popular in its day, it was turned into a film of the same name in 1935 starring Gary Cooper and Ann Harding. In her book 'A Question of Time: J. R. R. Tolkien's Road to Faërie' Verlyn Flieger discusses this book's possible influences on how Tolkien viewed time in his Middle Earth. A House-Boat on the Styx (1895) by John Kendrick Bangs A humorous novel set on the river Styx, where the shades of the dead live after their lives on Earth. Charon wakes up one day to learn someone has put a houseboat on the infernal river, but gets over his annoyance when he finds he will be its janitor. The House Boat makes an appearance in Alan Moore's 'Promethea', the heroine of which is Sophie Bangs, one of the author's supposed descendants. Etidorhpa (1895) by John Uri Lloyd An adventure story featuring another underground realm, this time entered from Kentucky. Full of alchemy, secret Masonic rites, the hollow Earth, a truly fantastic novel. 'Etidorhpa' is oh course 'Aphrodite' spelt backward The King in Yellow (1895) by Robert W. Chambers A collection of short stories, most of which are fantastical, some veering into horror and based around a mythical book in play form, "The King in Yellow", of which reading the third and final act generally leads to mental decay and madness, and the associated mysterious and malevolent supernatural entity of the same name, and its Yellow Sign. Elements of these stories made their way into H. P. Lovecraft''s Cthulhu mythos stories, and recently on TV into the first season of 'True Detectives' The Water of the Wondrous Isles (1897) by William Morris The novel, published the year following Morris's death, follows Birdalone, a young girl who is stolen as a baby by a witch who takes her to serve in the woods of Evilshaw. She travels through an Arthurian-type world, as one of the very first female heroines of the fantasy genre. Morris's vocabulary might be offputting to some moderns, using many archaisms even for a Victorian, but I've always been fond of his writings. As well as this fantasy novel, Morris wrote many more, starting with 'The Hollow Land' (1856), and including 'The Story of the Glittering Plain' (1891), 'The Wood Beyond the World' (1894), 'The Well at the World's End' (1896), 'The Sundering Flood' (1897) as well as a number of short stories eventually collected in 'Golden Wings and Other Stories' in the Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library series. The Wallet of Kai Lung (1900) by Ernest Bramah A collection of fantasy stories most of which feature Kai Lung, an itinerant storyteller of ancient China. Bramah went on to complete another three short story collections and a novel, all of great charm, featuring the old storyteller. Brahmah was a highly prolific author, who also wrote the Max Carrados series of detective stories. Fancy Free (1901) Eden Phillpotts A collection of short stories set in various eras. Phillpotts wrote several more fantasy short story collections along with a number of novels. Another author who seems largely forgotten Five Children and It (1902) by E. Nesbit The first of three children’s novels featuring the five children, Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane, and their baby brother known as the Lamb, come to discover a rather grumpy and very unfairly-like creature called a sand-fairy or 'Psammead', capable of granting wishes. This leads them into a whole series of adventures in this, and the two sequels ‘The Phoenix and the Carpet’ (1904), where the Psammead is mostly absent and then returning in the final ‘The Story of the Amulet’ (1906) Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (1904) by Lafcadio Hearn Hearn's retelling of a number of Japanese ghost stories and folk tales. The Japanese film director Masaki Kobayashi based his famous film of the same name on Hearn's book The Wind in the Willows (1908) by Kenneth Grahame Adventures of Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger. this is a classic Edwardian fantasy.

[@terrystewart1973]

(con) The House of Souls (1906) by Arthur Machen Collection of short stories combining horror and fantasy, containing what I think is his best work, 'The White People'. This takes the form of a diary kept by a young girl who, starting with the influence of her nurse, is drawn into a supernatural world. In his 1986 'Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural', T.E.D. Klein declared it ‘...the purest and most powerful expression of what Jack Sullivan has called the “transcendental” or “visionary” supernatural tradition. Most other tales in that tradition ... merely describe encounters with the dark primeval forces that reign beyond the edge of civilization; The White People seems an actual product of such an encounter, an authentic pagan artifact...’. The collection also includes his other great masterpiece, 'The Great God Pan', as well as 'The Inmost Light' and 'A Fragment of Life'. Tarzan of the Apes (1912) by Edgar Rice Burroughs Burroughs wrote a lot of early science fiction, but this first of a whole series of Tarzan books is pure fantasy. Burroughs also wrote a series set in that popular destination the hollow Earth, starting with ‘At the Earth's Core’ (1914) where adventures use an excavating mining “mole” to find the interior world of Pellucidar. ‘The Land That Time Forgot’ (1918) has its 'Lost World' location on an island in the Antarctic ocean, warmed by volcanoes and teeming with dinosaurs and tribes of semi-human creatures The Book of Wonder (1912) by Lord Dunsany Some have already mentioned his novel 'The King of Elfland's Daughter', but I think mention should also be made of his short stories, as these were much more of an influence on a whole host of later writers, particularly the early H. P. Lovecraft of 'The Doom that Came to Sarnath', 'The Cats of Ulthar', 'Celephais' and 'The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath'. The Book of Wonder was written as a collaboration with the artist Sidney Sime; Sime provided a fantastic illustration which Dunsany then wrote the story of. Dunsany also wrote a few humorous fantasy novels such as 'The Blessing of Pan' (1927) where a stuffy 19th century English village is transformed by the god Pan, and 'My Talks with Dean Spanley' (1936) where the Dean of the title is able, under the influence of a rare Imperial Tokay wine, to recall his life and adventures as a dog sometime in the Victorian period. Some people mistakenly think the movie based on this book is better, rather in the same way Peter Jackson “improved” on Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’. Incredible Adventures (1914) by Algernon Blackwood A collection of short stories of weird fantasy stories. A highly recommended author in the genre, though little known now. other story collections include John Silence (1908) a series of short stories about a Carnaki-like paranormal investigator, The Lost Valley and Other Stories (1910), Pan's Garden: a Volume of Nature Stories (1912) as well as novels such as The Human Chord (1910), The Centaur (1911) and Julius LeVallon (1916). Many of his stories fall into the category of nature fantasies and stories involving the fourth dimension. The Fates of the Princes of Dyfed (1914) by Kenneth Morris A fantasy novel written by Welsh author and theosophist Kenneth Morris, this is a retelling of the medieval Welsh Mabinogion. Ursula K. Le Guin praised his writing The Strange Life of Ivan Osokin (1915) by P. D. Ouspensky. Based on Nietzsche's theory of eternal recurrence the hero realizes he can remember past iterations of his life, and tries to alter it from its recurring nature Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice (1919) by James Branch Cabell Part of a series of vaguely interconnected novels Cabell wrote, collectively called Biography of the Life of Manuel' Count of Poictesme (a fictional province of France). A comic fantasy novel, influencing Terry Pratchett amongst others, this is the story of Jurgen, a "monstrous clever fellow" who sets out on a quest through a dreamscape of various medieval realms, Heaven and Hell, in search of "justice" The Moon Pool (1919) by A. Merritt Another 'Lost World' novel, of a race within the hollow earth, ruled by a powerful evil entity called the Shining One, which periodically visits the earth's surface, capturing men and women to somehow feed off of. This was the first of a series of similar fantasy novels written, some of which were adapted to film, including 'The Devil-Doll' (1936) based on Merritt's 'Burn Witch Burn!' (1932) Mary Rose (1920) by J. M. Barrie Better known for his play Peter Pan (1904), his other plays shouldn't be overlooked, particularly the odd, disturbing Mary Rose. Here Mary Rose is a child who vanishes whilst visiting a remote Scottish island, but three weeks later she just as mysteriously returns with no memory of what happened to her. Many years later she returns to the island, and again vanishes, and again mysteriously returns. This time though it is decades later she hasn't aged at all in the interim, but her family has aged beyond recognition, and her son, Harry, who was nearly three when she disappeared, is gone. Alfred Hitchcock wanted to create a film version but his studio believed that the project was "too troubling". The Haunted Woman (1922) by David Lindsay Better known for his odd science fiction book 'A Voyage to Arcturus' (1920), 'The Haunted Woman' is a work of dark, metaphysical fantasy. The heroine Isabel Loment visiting an ancient country home discovers a mysterious staircase leading to a series of rooms that exist outside of our reality. Whilst there Isabel and the owner of the house, Henry Judge undergo an expansion in their consciousness and start a romance, but they are unable to recall this state when they leave the room. Topper (1926) by Thorne Smith First of a series of humorous fantasy novels, set in 1920s America, in this one respectable banker Cosmo Topper has a series of adventures with a couple of ghosts. Very popular at the time, it was turned into a film starring Cary Grant, as was 'The Passionate Witch' filmed as I Married a Witch, starring Veronica Lake. Turnabout (1931) is a body-swapping fantasy, in this case, the married couple Sally and Tim Willows; also turned into a 1940 film starring Carole Landis and John Hubbard. Also from 1931 is his ' The Night Life of the Gods' where inventor Hunter Hawk having met a nine-hundred-year-old lady leprechaun named Megaera who helps him master the art of transforming statues into people, runs amok with Metropolitan Museum of Arts statues of Bacchus, Mercury, Neptune, Diana, Hebe, Apollo, and Perseus, unleashing them on prohibition-era New York.

[@goflowjoe]

I cannot wait for the Dunsany overview! Discovering The King of Elfland's Daughter was one of the most serendipitous moments of my reading career.

[@goflowjoe]

Mervin Peake, too!

[@kathleenfaulstich4990]

I was working in MIT's college bookstore. The book was ordered for a class that was canceled but was still on the shelf. The cover and title intrigued me and encouraged me to travel "beyond the fields we know." It led me to GRRM. I am one of those poor suckers who have been holding their collective breath since around '97.

[@philipebbrell2793]

I discovered Dunsany lived in Shoreham, Kent as well as Samuel Palmer the painter. It is on my list to visit and draw the landscape.

[@coltaine503]

Plus all the fabulous short stories. And no disrespect to the King of Elfland's Daughter but my favorite is The Charwomans' Shadow.

[@goflowjoe]

@@coltaine503 I enjoyed that one but not as much.

[@jlstrick1]

My personal library was full of Ballantine and Del Rey books. I am deeply grateful for this genre.

[@djfountain8210]

My dad and I speak often about fantasy works he read and liked, and one of them was David Eddings Belgariad and Malloreon. It’s right now one of my favorite stories, and even though it’s very Tolkienesque, I appreciate what he wrote!

[@thelibraryladder]

I too enjoyed the Belgariad, although I'm less fond of the Malloreon because of how much it follows the same formula as the Belgariad.

[@Verlopil]

I upvoted this before I even watched it and wish I could upvote again. Thank you for giving a face to early fantasy. This series of books was instrumental to my development as a fantasy reader. I was lucky enough to live near a library that thought it was important to have these books on their shelves. Not all of them made it there, but by the time I was leaving for college I'd read probably half. It's also a great place to point people to for a reference if they think fantasy only existed as epic fantasy before the current decade or so, or that there was no fantasy before Tolkien!

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! Like you, I gained a greater appreciation of the roots of the fantasy genre after encountering the Ballantine series. Many classic authors and works I'd never heard of until I found these paperback editions. I can't say that I've fully enjoyed all of them, but they've given me a greater appreciation of the genre and its history.

[@mayormccheese6171]

I grew up reading pulp fantasy including these in the 80s and 90s. I admit I enjoyed fantasy a lot more when it was obscure and for a niche audience. It felt more intimate. The internet, video games, Hollywood etc. have all but made it ubiquitous. Haha I guess I miss being a nerd.

[@mayormccheese6171]

@bastiat4855 you have no idea who l am so keep your silly assumptions to yourself.

[@jacobshelt01]

I grew up on the old tsr books, I loved the old well written fantasy books . They were obscure too but exciting and I still remember them today

[@rickkearn7100]

TLL, viewing your posts is like attending a university literature lecture. I always learn something new. Great content, quality, production and especially presentation! Cheers.

[@davebrzeski]

Had the series continued, I suspect Terry Brooks would have been included over Lin Carter's dead body! I will never forget Carter's review of The Sword of Shannara, which began with the line, "This war crime of a novel..." I'm looking forward to all the promised videos, especially the Lord Dunsany overview

[@Sagal.I]

😂

[@abcdef27669]

Never let this amazing story be forgotten!

[@SG-js2qn]

Memories! I was in that group trying to find fantasy fiction, and I read a lot of those. Evangeline Walton, Joy Chant, H Warner Munn, RE Howard, David Lindsey, ER Eddison, Katherine Kurtz, and more.

[@samcostello2861]

It's a shame that Ballantine Books overlooked H. Rider Haggard's novel Eric Brighteyes, which I believe to be a criminally underrated book. Eric Brighteyes tells a majestic story that starts off as a loving pastiche of Icelandic family sagas before becoming a grueling tragedy that would make William Shakespeare proud. Thankfully, Newcastle Publishing Company came along to re-issue the book as part of their Forgotten Fantasy Library, which incidentally is believed to have been inspired by the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series.

[@SEKreiver]

Lin Carter got it published by Zebra, the successor to Lancer Books.

[@thelibraryladder]

I agree that Eric Brighteyes is a great read. I plan to make a video about Haggard's works at some point, but probably not in the next year (too many other video topics ahead of him in the queue). I thought about mentioning Newcastle's Forgotten Fantasy Library in this video about Ballantine (I have several of the Newcastle books, and they complement the Ballantine series nicely by filling in gaps), but I didn't want the video to be too long, so I decided to incorporate them into a future video. Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@StegoKing]

No one is reading She or King Solomon's Mines. Ayesha is long forgotten. Why on Earth publish a Haggard B-Side from the same era?

[@jaimeosbourn3616]

Lin Carter did talk about eric brighteyes in one of the volumes. Funny I had never heard of Newcastls publishings forgotten fantasy library. Have to look into that.

[@jaimeosbourn3616]

@@StegoKing You mean no one you know is reading them

[@BooksForever]

The set of Ballantine books of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings with white covers featuring Tolkien’s watercolors (and pastels?) in 1978 was the first four books I ever bought from a real bookstore - as a twelve-year-old. Previously all of my book purchases had been through the Scholastic Book Club offered through my elementary school… such titles as Clifford the Big Red Dog, Runaway Ralph, and the Adventures of Pippi Longstocking. I owe the shape of my adulthood to Ballantine Books.

[@thelibraryladder]

I received the same set of Tolkien paperbacks as a present when I was around 11, and I read them cover to cover many times over the next ten years. I might have been more enthralled by the Appendices at the end of The Return of the King than I was with the main story (and I loved the main story). I still have those books, although they're showing their age.

[@jackasswhiskyandpintobeans9344]

You were lucky. What my mom would do is get me interested in books and then when the time came to buying the books through Scholastic or books ads, she would say, "We'll check 'em out at the library." I credit my mom for making me a library rat. It was a sneaking trick though.

[@BooksForever]

@@thelibraryladder - the quick sequel to my anecdote is that a couple years later I bought the nearly matching paperback of The Silmarillion while my family visited Mark Twain’s house in Hannibal, Missouri… there was a gift shop that had a rotating wire rack of some popular titles at the time, and this “new” book by Tolkien naturally caught my eye. It would be several years later, on my third attempt, before I finally made it through (and fell in love with) The Silmarillion.

[@thelibraryladder]

The latter half of The Silmarillion is amazing. My 12-year-old self struggled with the first half, but I made it through. On subsequent rereads, though, I tended to skip over the first few chapters. As an adult I encountered the early fiction of Lord Dunsany, who is often cited as a major influence on Tolkien's fantasy writing. I was shocked to discover just how much of an influence. Dunsany's short fiction collection 'The Gods of Pegana' reads almost like a cross between the first two sections of The Silmarillion and the King James Bible. Tolkien clearly patterned those parts of The Silmarillion after Dunsany's fantasy debut.

[@robertdobie3400]

Wow! I too purchased all three volumes of the Ballantine edition of the LOTR with white covers featuring Tolkien's watercolors at my local suburban Philadelphia mall in November 1978 when I was twelve years old! They were the first "real books" I ever read: I remember taking the "Fellowship" home that night, turning the page to "Concerning Hobbits" and was immediately entranced. Although I now have a study lined with books, those original Ballantine volumes of Tolkien still take pride of place on my shelves and are probably the most prized items in my collection!

[@Paromita_M]

Beautiful video. What a coincidence - I just finished and loved The Mabinogion tetralogy by Evangeline Walton published by Ballantine Books. I tried the Worm Ouroboros and the Zimiamvia trilogy too but the writing just wasn't for me. LOTR and Gormenghast are the GOATs for me. With Tolkien, we still had Christopher Tolkien to give us The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and other books like Children of Hurin after he passed. But Peake's untimely demise means we live with a glimpse of what could have been. I am so thankful for the novels we got but wonder what the next installments would have been like. Sui generis indeed, as Mieville said. I really tried to get into Clark Ashton Smith with the Penguin collection by ST Joshi but I couldn't concentrate and gave up. I like HP Lovecraft okay but someone I really respect mentioned CAS is the greater writer. What do you think? I knew the Del Rey part of the story and its so awesome. Shannara and Thomas Covenant - two disparate works heralding the beginning of a new era. Thank you for this informative video. 🙏🏽

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! To read Eddison, I have to take myself out my modern sensibilities and instead try to perceive the novels as readers did a hundred years ago. Narratively and stylistically they're a little excessive by modern standards, but I can imagine what an impact the books might have had on literary readers back then who had rarely if ever encountered storytelling like that. I find it easy to see how Tolkien was so enamored with Eddison's books and how much they influenced his own writing. Fortunately, Tolkien largely resisted the urge to imitate Eddison's excesses. I appreciate nearly all of the early weird fiction writers, but I have to be in the right frame of mind to read and stay immersed in their works. I prefer Smith over Lovecraft, but my leanings are even more toward earlier (and less overtly weird) authors such as M.R. James, Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood to name a few.

[@Paromita_M]

@@thelibraryladder Algernon Blackwood yes - a friend recommended me The Willows and it was so good! I want to read more by him.

[@moleasuarus]

I really appreciated this episode. I'd heard references to the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series over the years, but nothing in any depth. It had stopped publishing before I started reading fantasy in the late 70's. I wanted to know more about it and now my curiosity has been satisfied.

[@jsw0278]

Love some of the psychedelic artwork. And the fact that these classic books were not too massive like all the lengthy series you get these days. Love the old style, very evocative writing too of Mervyn Peake, Clarke Ashton Smith. Etc

[@thelibraryladder]

I'm a big fan of concisely told stories, and many of these older ones are great in that respect. My enjoyment of them varies, but even the ones I'm less fond of don't require a substantial time commitment to read.

[@barrymoore4470]

The covers Bob Pepper did for Peake's 'Gormenghast' books are classics in themselves.

[@BladedEdge]

I wish modern genre fiction publishing didn't demand that every story be a massive doorstop and be at least a series of 3. Sometimes I want to read a story that values words. Roger Zelazny was good at that.

[@angusorvid8840]

Great video and an important subject. Ballantine was enormously important in shaping the field of fantasy by bringing these books to a wide audience, especially in America. Fantasy is the oldest genre of all. We're taking the genre from which the fables and mythology itself spout from.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks, and I agree!

[@wileyschmitt]

Love all the cover art for these Ballantine books. I'll keep an eye out for these, though I don't come across many of them on my hunts. Those LotR Ace paperback editions are very tough to find, but I do have a nice copy of Return of the King in my own collection (and paid only $1.00 for it).

[@will-love-lvx]

I've seen a few in the wild. Not in the best of shape...but decent.

[@murph_archer1129]

Excellent video. I've wanted to read my way through the whole list covered in this video and now I'm definitely going to start picking up these books when I can

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! The Ballantine series contains a very eclectic mix of books, which can be a nice change of pace from the relative sameness of a lot of modern fantasy. Some of the older works can be a bit of an acquired taste, but they're still an interesting reading experience (if not always one you'll want to repeat).

[@cliffwoodbury5319]

Thank Carter Ballantine for sticking to a strategy to have forgotten works gain new readership though it wasn't good buisness practice!!! Using very successful titles to prop up many that didn't sell good might sound crazy to a corporation but it is an amazing strategy that makes a genre better.

[@daunrussell]

Picking these up in second-hand shops in the UK, with nothing to go on but the wonderful covers, was a huge education for me in my early teens back in the 70s. Most of my copies have long gone but I still get a buzz when I occasionally stumble across these editions. I'd love an art book of the collected covers.

[@arlissbunny]

I read so many of these as they were coming out and I still have a number of them. This video is like seeing old friends. Thank you for all the background.

[@captainnolan5062]

This video is a great overview of the series and a wonderful walk down memory lane (and makes me want to dig these books out again and give some of them a new read).

[@paulgunderson4721]

In high school (early-mid 70s), a teacher saw that I was always carrying/reading one of the LoTR paperbacks. She gave me a copy of Lin Carter's Tolkien: A Look Behind the Lord of the Rings. I read that, my head exploded, and I started searching for the books mentioned and in the index. Each time I found and purchased one, I put a red dot in the book. I didn't collect them all - due to lack of time and funds - but I did get many of them. Ans still have them.

[@storiedworlds6261]

If this guy isn’t a professional voice over guy, he should be. Also, great video. As if my TBR isn’t big enough as it is. 😂

[@Buckeystown]

I was an avid buyer and reader of the Ballantine book series as this covered my high school and college years. Great memories. I have been using Kindle to re-read non-PC authors like Sax Rohmer, Earl Derr Biggers, and John Marquand but was please to find anthologies of a lot of these authors as well. I remember staring at the closed gate of Dunsany Castle was I was young and wishing I could visit the place.

[@maharal9]

I've never read any of the Mr. Moto stories, despite reading about them. Is there a title you would recommend?

[@thelibraryladder]

It's nice to see people still reading Rohmer, Biggers and Marquand. Have you tried any Talbot Mundy or P.C. Wren? I'm a fan of all of them, and at some point I plan to make videos about their works in an effort to encourage modern readers to embrace their place in literary history despite the insensitive elements they can contain.

[@thelibraryladder]

I suggest starting with the third novel in the series: Think Fast, Mr. Moto. Note, though, that Mr. Moto isn't the central character in the books bearing his name. The stories tend to focus on other characters who find themselves in difficult situations full of political intrigue, while Mr. Moto appears only occasionally throughout the stories to play instrumental roles. I mention this in order to help you set expectations.

[@sandyhausler5290]

Listened to this video for the second time (not only because of its quality, but because it’s been some time since you’ve uploaded a new video). I hope to hear more from you on the fantasy genre. (I’ve watched and enjoyed your videos on Lord Dunsany and on books relating to King Arthur!)

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! Your timing is perfect. At long last, I finally finished my video overview of Jack Vance and uploaded it a few minutes ago.

[@LordVader1094]

The audio quality is excellent, keep up the great videos!

[@mrpants345]

So happy that youtube is finally recommending me smaller creators like yourself. Not something I ever would have searched out on my own, but such a fun watch. Thanks!

[@thelibraryladder]

I'm so happy to have been recommended! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks!

[@_jared]

Terrific video. It added quite a few books to my to-read list.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks, Jared! There are some books in the series I want to find time to read as well.

[@keithdavis9889]

Thank you for showing some love for the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. I started discovering these in used bookstores in the 1980's, and realized what a treasure trove they were. I might never have read Eddison, David Lindsay, Lord Dunsany, or Clark Ashton Smith without them. I even found a copy of Land of Unreason that was autographed by de Camp. I hope to collect them all.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks for sharing! I discovered the series in my school and public libraries around the same time you did. Good luck in your quest to find them all. A few are pretty scarce, which can drive up their prices to levels that seem absurd for books that were produced to be essentially disposable.

[@karstencollins6966]

Finally a video on the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. I've got about 50 or so of these, including some of the precursor titles before the series was named. My favorites so far have been Figures of Earth, Phantastes, The Charwomans Shadow, Titus Groan (Im about done with Gormenghast and it's even better I think!) The Broken Sword, and the Worm Ouroboros. It's really cool as a relatively younger reader to dive deep into what made the fantasy/S&S genre what it is today. Also, learning about the importance Lin Carter had on resurrecting the genre. I've still got a lot to read and collect with this series (Especially the mythical Zothique, the last gap in my C.A.S run), but I am looking forward to every book! And of course, fantastic job giving an informative overview of the series!

[@P.EnglishLiterature]

Oh my world. I'm new here and I am hooked!!!!

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks and welcome aboard!

[@cliffwoodbury5319]

THIS VIDEO IS/WAS AMAZING!!!!! Thank you for creating it!!! I haven't heard of almost every book and author on/in this video!!!

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! I'm so glad you found it entertaining and informative.

[@cliffwoodbury5319]

@@thelibraryladder I read a descent amount of fantasy, including the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe and Tolkien (the hobbit and the trilogy) when i was a pre-teen/teen (before the films) and as an adult I read several of Tolkien's other works. I always wondered who came before Tolkien and it was cool to finally get the information in such a well put together presentation.

[@alliem9404]

Excellent video! I always love these history topics you do

[@keithdonohue4631]

My new favorite KZbin channel!

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks and welcome aboard!

[@jojothepirate87]

Fantastic video! I have read quite a few of them and I'm happy I found your channel!

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks, and welcome aboard!

[@c.c.lilford2916]

I own all 4 of the Clark Ashton Smith volumes! These are the best Smith publishings you can get! Those and the Eddings are what got me collecting Ballantine Adult Fantasy books.

[@thelibraryladder]

Fortunate you! Those are hard to find at reasonable prices these days.

[@c.c.lilford2916]

​@@thelibraryladderIt took YEARS of patiently watching ebay. Xiccarph was actually the hardest for some reason.

[@DougerSR]

Fascinating info. Also, very pleasant listen. Glad I found this.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! I'm very glad you enjoyed it.

[@tigerhorse6321]

What a great overview! Twenty-odd years ago I put together a set of these (ah, the thrill of finding a new volume in a used book store!) and it's still one of the most prized things in my library.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! You’re very fortunate. It’s getting difficult to piece together a complete set of the BAFs. They’re both readable and collectible.

[@megarural3000]

As a kid in the 70's I remember being swept away by Barbara Remington's art on so many covers of these books, notably the Tolkien books and the Wyrm Oroborus. That art was incredible, simple and primal. It really came across as the end of pulp art and the beginning of modern fantasy art. Pulp art had a slightly longer life in the early RPG era, but that would not live past the 80's. This was a great essay on the books that I read while young, and was a wonderful trip down memory lane. Time to fill in the blanks in my reading list. And you are right, Lin Carter, while not the great author had an impeccable eye for the genre and was the right man at the right time to be Ballantine's editor.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks for sharing! So many of the BAF covers are really stunning, reflecting aspects of the counter-culture movement of that era.

[@MaineScenery]

Once upon a time I owned them all and read most of them. Great video!

[@mercurywoodrose]

I MET IAN. nice guy. changed the face of books. he is a character in 'Dinotopia"! one of his pet projets. I drove Fritz home to his walkup in the Tenderloin SF. he marvelled at the fullmoon. man im lucky.

[@erehweslefox]

Very comprehensive. I remember when I worked for Bauman Rare Books putting together a collection of influential fantasy for a client... Many of the early Ballantine paperbacks are very hard to track down!

[@thelibraryladder]

I've enjoyed exploring Bauman's collection over the years.

[@erehweslefox]

@@thelibraryladder BRB made some very nice collections possible.

[@erehweslefox]

@@thelibraryladder I enjoyed working with them. Certiainly high end book collectors are interesting peeps. Plus I got the connections to put together an entire run of Firsts from Edna St. Vincent Millay

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

This series was so great. I wish I had more of these. Great video!

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks, Michael! Some of them are getting a little hard to find, but most are still available at prices that aren't ridiculous. I'm sure you've read many of the titles in the series, and books like Cutcliffe Hyne's The Lost Continent, F. Marion Crawford's Khaled, and Ernest Bramah's Kai Lung stories seem like they'd be right up your alley if haven't read them.

[@inkpapers-1]

It is amazing how many of these books I have collected and read, I did not make the connection quite between all of them or know how much Lin Carter was involved in it.

[@GBlucher]

Wonderful video! And thank you for showing the cover of Six of Swords. I’ve been trying to remember that book for years now. All I had to go on were vague recollections of the cover and the little map of the land. It was one of those things itching the back of my brain! Thanks again!

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! I'm so glad to have been of service in helping you remember a book. You're the third person in three days to tell me that!

[@oxhornsupporter985]

New to the channel, and it's funny that this popped up in my feed because not a month ago I bought the 2015 book THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN FANTASY: FROM ANTIQUARIANISM TO THE BALLANTINE ADULT FANTASY SERIES by Jamie Williamson, which, as is clear from the subtitle, uses the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series as the basis of its argument.

[@thelibraryladder]

Quite a coincidence! I'm familiar with Williamson's book, although I think he gives Ballantine a little too much credit. There were other publishers and authors at that time who were helping to grow the genre too. Ballantine was perhaps the most aggressive and successful of the bunch.

[@xx99Username99xx]

Looking forward to your overview of Lord Dunsany.

[@thelibraryladder]

I am too! Thanks for watching.

[@davidaldinger3666]

Feel free to do a series on Del Rey and Tor books as well. These houses managed to assemble an amazing stable of established and upcoming writers in the 80’s that pushed fantasy and sci-fi into the mainstream.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks for the suggestion! I hope to cover all of the publishing houses that shaped speculative fiction. The next one I feature probably will be Shasta Publishers, which was a small but influential publisher based in Chicago in the 1940s and 50s. They didn't publish very many books, but the quality of the authors and titles they brought into print was remarkably high.

[@davidaldinger3666]

@@thelibraryladder I haven't checked, but please do Arkham House too if you haven't already

[@thelibraryladder]

@@davidaldinger3666 You’re in luck. I covered Arkham House last October.

[@beermarshal2070]

Great video! Just found your channel a few days ago and I really appreciate your delving into the less-traveled byways of older fantasy - nobody needs more videos on GRR Martin or Robert Jordan, do they? I've been collecting the BAF series for probably 25 years - always trying to get them in nice condition but cheap, which has been a challenge, moreso now that I have few local or even semi-local bookstores. I like your singling out of The Man Who Was Thursday as an odd duck - it's one of my favorites actually and a book I have in quite a few editions for some reason; I like what I've read of Chesterton's other fantasy-SF as well. But I've collected far more than I've read, and recently I'm trying to make up for some lost time - I think Vathek will be on the reading list quite soon, and Clark Ashton Smith and Dunsany perhaps next year. I'd love to see you do something on the Newcastle series, have several of those but have never really investigated the series, just have whatever I've picked up at random, and I don't have them all grouped together like I do the Ballantines. Hmm, maybe I have all of them, I don't even know.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! That's the focus of my channel -- spotlighting classic books and authors that are overlooked on BookTube and might be at risk of being forgotten. I have several books in the Newcastle series. I considered including the series as part of this video, but when I realized how long the video would be, I decided to cover Newcastle at a later date. I'm a fan of Chesterton as well. I intend to make a video about him, but probably not for a couple years, given how long my list of planned videos is. You might be interested to know that my next video is a look at the fantasy works of Lord Dunsany.

[@diegoaugusto1319]

As always, great video, I love to hear about books and his authors, keep the good job.

[@mygeekdom4414]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Do a video on one of my favorite fantasy franchise: The Eternal Champion by Michael Moorcock. His essentially making his own franchise out of 4 main characters series and then side publications was genius. Elric and Corum are two of my favorites.

[@thelibraryladder]

You're in luck! I've already been doing a series of videos on the Eternal Champion. I made an introductory overview video a little more than a year ago, and two more videos focused on Von Bek, Erekose and Hawkmoon since then. The next video in the series will focus on Oswald Bastable, which I'm planning for later this summer. My videos follow the reading order recommended by Moorcock.

[@charpkun]

Thanks for the content. I did often wonder why in my day (kid of the 80's and 90's) fantasy was far more prominent on the book shelves than sf was (not that i complained since it was my preferred genre), but i get now how we got from Tokien (unreadable for my 10-12 year old brain) to shannara.

[@rexhex3700]

I love this guys voice.

[@rokentom3926]

Incredibly informative and entertaining as always

[@josephd5879]

What a great video. Thank you so much for doing the research and sharing the knowledge of the underrated pre-mid 1960s fantasy genre. I am looking forward to more videos like this one.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thank you for the very kind words! I have many more videos like this one planned. They're some of my favorite ones to make, along with comprehensive author retrospectives.

[@ThomasAnderson1111]

I've been looking forward to this for months! I have a complete collection myself, along with many related volumes such as the one-volume edition of The Well at the World's End, the Del Rey edition of Merlin's Godson, and an edition of The Forgotten Beasts of Eld with cover art by Gervasio Gallardo. Since you mentioned you plan to make more videos on the history of the genre, I must ask--are you familiar with The Evolution of Modern Fantasy by Jamie Williamson? It's very thorough, and spends more than a little time pointing out the shortcomings of Carter's Imaginary Worlds.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! I'm envious of your complete BAF collection. As you could see from the video, I have a few gaps in my collection (although I have earlier hardcover editions for many of those missing books). Also, I am familiar with Williamson's work. I share his view that the Ballantine series played a central role in popularizing the fantasy genre in the 1960s and 70s, although I think he might give Ballantine too much credit. Other publishers played significant roles too, and many authors during that period were pushing the boundaries of various genres, thereby creating new opportunities for fantasy fiction to evolve and find its audience. It was a dynamic time, so tracing the direct causes and influences is inherently difficult. Thanks for commenting!

[@ThomasAnderson1111]

Heh--I'm likewise envious of your hardcover editions! I definitely agree there's a lot more to the rise of the modern fantasy genre than the BAFS. (If it were overwhelmingly the most important factor, why don't we see anyone writing like Lord Dunsany today?) What impressed me most about Williamson's work was the massive number of now-obscure works he read. It gives me a lot to aspire to as an armchair fantasy expert!

[@japewisteria]

My first Dunsany was a Ballantine Adult Fantasy...now I have 40 of them. ;) The Centaur Press Time-Lost books are also notable.

[@titojdavis8374]

King of Elfland's Daughter has been on my tbr for a while, just added a few more

[@hayleyhistorynerd2211]

Thank-you so much for share your expertise and research! This was so informative and exciting. I took notes on the video and wrote down the authors and the novels. I'm so looking forward to delving into the earlier generations of fantasy. I love this genre so much. I'm working on a novel to add to its wonderful ranks. As I write I hope to become more and more well read in fantasy and science fiction. Thank-you again for all the help in this endeavor! Hayley ^_^

[@thelibraryladder]

Wonderful! I'm so glad you found the video helpful. I wish you all the best in your writing pursuits!

[@shawnveltheim1688]

Those covers on that un-authorized 1965 LoTR set are seriously awesome. I wonder if I could find them in poster form somewhere. The "Authorized" covers are far less sexy. Thanks for making another video. I love your content.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! My production schedule has slowed down as I've had a lot of other things going on for the past couple of months. I hope to pick up the pace this summer. There are a lot of videos I want to make. Also, I agree about those unauthorized LOTR covers. Very striking. The Ballantine first editions are too busy for my taste. My favorite Ballantine edition is the second edition from the 1970s with Tolkien's own artwork on the covers.

[@ArkBahm]

And of course the " unsexy" covers for the ballintine edition of LOTR were by an obscure illustrator whose initials were j.r.r.t. yup, Tolkien himself.

[@thelibraryladder]

@@Briarpatchlogic Barbara Remington painted the covers for the first Ballantine paperback edition. The second edition, first published in 1973, had the white covers with Tolkien's depictions of The Shire, Fangorn Forest and Barad-dur on them.

[@shawnveltheim1688]

@@ArkBahm come on man, there's a huge difference between "less sexy" and "unsexy" lol for instance I'm totally ok with being less sexy than the handsome dudes on TV but I hope my wife doesn't find me completely "unsexy". Thanks though. I knew JRRT had done some covers, I didn't know which ones. Also, I might seriously try to find or bootleg some of them there Gaughan ones as posters.

[@shawnveltheim1688]

@@Briarpatchlogic Thanks :)

[@robins5314]

Good stuff, thanks for the video.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks for watching!

[@quentandil]

Amazing work put into this video!

[@denniscattell]

You don't much like Lin Carter's work, that's clear enough, but I quite like his fantasy novels, and the first one, The Wizard Of Lemuria, is very good reading in my opinion. That apart, thank you for a very good overview and look at the Adult Fantasy range of Ballantyne.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks for your comment! My perspective on Carter's fiction books is based mainly on how I think they compare to similar works by other authors and not on an absolute judgment of their worth. I agree that they can be entertaining, but given a choice between the S&S stories of Carter or those of his contemporaries/predecessors Howard, Leiber, Moore, de Camp, Brackett, Moorcock, Eisenstein, and Wagner, I'd choose any of the latter over Carter.

[@michaeljdauben]

Those Ballantine editions of Lord of the Rings with the Barbara Remington cover art were my introduction to Tolkien's epic back in the 70s. My original copies are long gone, but I recently found a boxed set of the three paperbacks in very good condition that I bought to add to my collection. 😊

[@mike-williams]

I have never seen those editions before but I recognised the style instantly from Harvard Lampoon's LOTR parody "Bored of the Rings"

[@thelibraryladder]

My preference is for the second edition Ballantine paperbacks published in the 1970s with Tolkien's own cover art. It was the first set of the books I ever owned (received as a present when I was around 11). About ten years ago I found a boxed set of that edition on eBay in brand new condition, still in the original shrink wrap and labels from almost 40 years earlier.

[@thelibraryladder]

I was tempted to include the cover of Bored of the Rings in my video's montage showing covers of various Tolkien imitators, but I decided to play it straight.

[@CEEChannel]

Love the mention of Katherine Kurtz!

[@willp2877]

This was fascinating and very informative. I have a couple of these in my collection. I had no idea about the significance of this run, although I noticed the unicorn in the corner. I have noticed a hand full of these paperbacks at my neighborhood book store. Might have to go for a hunt/haul here soon.

[@cipriansirbu3699]

Please forgive me Sir about this off topic subject but my excitement is to the roof right now 😅.I've heard you saying that you will make a video about Robert McCammon and I'm so looking forward to it.I've read Boys Life back in January and I loved it,My Book of the Year so far but that could change because I'm currently at 41% into Swan Song and it's awesome.I've decided that when time allows,I want to go through his entire bibliography.Have a nice day.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! I am indeed planning a McCammon retrospective. I'm targeting October of this year to coincide with Halloween, but I've discovered to my regret that my video production schedule doesn't always live up to my plans. It might slip a little bit if I can't produce the other videos ahead of it in my queue a little faster.

[@byronwilliams7977]

Lets keep it 100, his voice is fucking EPIC !

[@warped_rider]

I've been reading Jack Vance and Fritz Leiber lately, I'm going to have to pick through the authors presented here. Vintage fantasy is interesting, it set a lot of the tropes we see today yet it's also alien.

[@thelibraryladder]

I agree that some of the early fantasy authors require a bit of adjustment from readers accustomed to modern fantasy stories. They can be enjoyable to read, though, and I find it fun to spot the origins of many of the tropes and traditions we take for granted in the genre today.

[@Mythologos]

I used to have a whole collection of these, I knew the cover artists by name, sadly I had to sell it all off in 2009, it took years & years to collect them all.

[@thelibraryladder]

That's heartbreaking! At least you had the opportunity to enjoy reading them while you had them.

[@poisonsumc7426]

Had LOTR with the fluorescent covers that they made the poster out of... and loved Ballantine's 'The Sign of the Unicorn' reprints of classic fantasy - Lin Carter also wrote a two volume biography of HP Lovecraft. Carter also would include one of his own short stories in those short story collections.

[@thelibraryladder]

For all his good qualities as an editor and genre historian, Carter had something of a conflict of interest in his tendency to promote his own works in ostensibly scholarly overviews of the fantasy genre as well as in the anthologies he edited that collected what he described as exemplars of the genre. It made him a somewhat polarizing figure among his fellow fantasy writers despite it being not much different from what Asimov did as an anthologist and historian in the science fiction genre.

[@poisonsumc7426]

@@thelibraryladder almost invariably his short would be the least interesting in what generally were very good collections. But I thought his Lovecraft bio at the time was nicely detailed and very good, it seemed he was dealing with people who either knew HP in the flesh so to speak, and/or had extensive correspondence with him.

[@matthewconstantine5015]

My wallet doesn't like your videos as much as I do. Several added to my list today. I think I still have a bunch of Ballantine Books from the era. Growing up in the late 70s & early 80s, my favorite shop was a used book store in my hometown (actually still open, amazingly). I bought tons of Ace & Ballantine books. I may have to dig out my plastic totes of paperbacks and sort through them as a summer project.

[@thelibraryladder]

My deep apologies! :D You might be sitting on a small gold mine with those older paperbacks. Some are quite scarce these days.

[@GuidedbyCrows]

Did they keep the shop the same or did they renovate too much and ruin it?

[@matthewconstantine5015]

@@GuidedbyCrows, it's mostly the same. Almost 50 years run by the same guy. But it's a small town where not a lot changes. I live an 18 hour drive away, so I only get to visit every couple of years.

[@knyght27]

The only one I have in my collection is 'The Well at World's End' by Morris

[@thelibraryladder]

That's one of Morris' best works, and one of the foundational works in the Ballantine series. Not a bad place to start a collection if you're so inclined.

[@nathan_james]

Thanks very much, that was super interesting! Can't wait to see more. I'm drawn more to "curiosities" lately, forgotten oddities and unsung gems of genre fiction. I recently found a nice copy of Bellairs' Face in the Frost, which I have a soft spot for. I feel sure you own a copy :)

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! I can vividly remember the first time I read The Face in the Frost. John Bellairs was a wonderful writer who seems to be largely forgotten these days. I should put him on my list of authors to feature in a future video.

[@nathan_james]

@@thelibraryladder I completely agree. And his partnership with Edward Gorey was one of the artistic collaborations for the ages

[@dionysianapollomarx]

Will definitely try Arthur Machen if Lovecraft patterned his works after Machen’s short stories.

[@alaneaves7691]

The High House by James Stoddard is a masterful tribute to this series as well as an excellent story in its own right.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks for the recommendation!

[@jackal59]

When I was a teenager in the 1970s, if it was put out by Ballantine, I bought it. Carter was a wonderful editor (and not too shabby a writer of non-fiction).

[@Edo9River]

Ohh I recognize the Ballantine pubs.

[@OrcmanRepugnant]

Dear sir, your opinion is highly respected, ergo, your top ten candidates for The Great America Novel would be more than merely highly interesting!

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll give it some thought.

[@chromaticfrog7407]

Your voice is like like butter my man. Subscribed.

[@jackasswhiskyandpintobeans9344]

17:05 Clark Ashton Smith's "Double Shadow," scared me to my depths. I will never read it again.

[@jeroenadmiraal8714]

Dear Library Ladder, I’ve been on the hunt for more obscure fantasy novels from before Tolkien, and I was wondering if you are familiar with some of these and have opinions about them: Thorne Smith - Topper (1926) Sylvia Townsend Warner - Lolly Willowes (1926) Mikhail Bulgakov - Heart of a Dog (1925) Anatole France - The Revolt of the Angels (1914) James Branch Cabell - Domnei (1913) Arthur Machen - The Hill of Dreams (1907) GK Chesterton - The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1904)

[@thelibraryladder]

Great list and very eclectic! I've read five of the seven. I haven't read the titles by Warner or France. My favorites of the bunch (in no particular order) are Topper, Heart of a Dog, and The Napoleon of Notting Hill. I like Domnei, but if it's your first Cabell, I wouldn't start there. Instead, I suggest starting at the beginning of his Life of Manuel series with Figures of the Earth. Domnei is the third novel in the series. The Hill of Dreams isn't among my favorite works by Machen.

[@jeroenadmiraal8714]

@@thelibraryladder I have read Jurgen as my first Cabell. I was thinking of The Silver Stallion as the next one but I will look into Figures of the Earth. I am really excited for your Lord Dunsany and Jack Vance retrospectives. These are two of my favourite writers. I am rereading the Planet of Adventure series right now and want to reread the Demon Princes series after that. But after a while most of his stories start to feel alike.

[@thelibraryladder]

Figures of Earth and Silver Stallion are the first two books in the loose history of the Life of Manuel. You could read either one, since the linkages between each book are tenuous and are set decades apart. I prefer following the internal chronological order starting with Figures of Earth.

[@peterritchie5593]

ace deserves the credit

[@christopherroberts4254]

Not sure where else to reach out to ask this question, but do you have any plans to look at Joe Abercrombie's First Law or other books?

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks for your question. I don't have any near-term plans to cover Abercrombie's books in a video. I think highly of many of his works, but because they're already discussed widely on BookTube, they're not high on my priority list of video topics. At some point, though, I probably will make an Abercrombie video, but it's likely to be a few years from now when readers might need a reminder about what makes his works so enjoyable.

[@darrylldoucette6895]

This was a great video and very informative but boy, oh, boy, you have increased my Must Read list to an almost unwieldy degree. Now excuse me, I have some used book stores to plunder.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks! A commenter in Fort Collins, Colorado, just posted that he's giving away his book collection, which includes titles from this series, so there's a thrift store near him that soon will have a selection of them (if you're in that neighborhood).

[@darrylldoucette6895]

@@thelibraryladder I am nowhere near Colorado but I do hope his collection finds a good home.

[@peterbernhardt4429]

Thank you. If Ace was in competition with Ballantine how does the history and quality of Ace novels and authors compare with Ballantine of the same period? Please consider a companion vid to this one.

[@thelibraryladder]

Great suggestion! I'll add that to my list of videos to make.

[@CYI3ERPUNK]

dood XD ; awesome channel , subbed =]

[@thelibraryladder]

Thx!

[@fierceperedur]

Epic high fantasy. Is the best.

[@ethansloan]

Fascinating

[@kufujitsu]

I always felt that Clarke Ashton Smith offered a more imaginative & poetic read than Lovecraft - Smith's stories varied from action/adventure in SF, to elegantly layered fantasy, & Smith occasionally imitated Lovecraft's supernatural horror stories to good effect as well - I think I read all of Smith's stories - but there was rumoured to be an unfinished novel of his that never made it into print....if it suddenly pops up somewhere, I won't hesitate to buy it...maybe " the library ladder" has a copy....?

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about Smith! I feel much the same way about his works. The 'unfinished' novel you're thinking of might be The Black Diamonds, which is an Arabian adventure novel he wrote as a teenager but never published. As I understand it, weird fiction editor and historian S.T. Joshi encountered the original draft manuscript while researching Smith's papers and correspondence. He and Hippocampus Press cleaned up the draft and published it in 2002 in the US. Used copies can be found for less than $20 in the US.

[@kufujitsu]

@thelibraryladder Thanks for your detective work. Hopefully they won't have taken away too much of Smith's magic with their rewrite. I'll seek it out.

[@patricktilton5377]

Penguin published a magnificent 2-part edition of Ludovico Ariosto's epic ORLANDO FURIOSO, translated by Barbara Reynolds, which I've been re-reading of late. The original, written in ottava rima, is 38,736 lines long (4,842 stanzas), divided into 46 cantos, and from what another translator (David Slavitt) has said, the 2nd volume didn't sell as well as the 1st one -- which is probably the case with Dante's INFERNO out-selling the PURGATORIO and PARADISO volumes of his Divine Comedy, regardless of whose translation it is. My dream is to see a 1-volume edition of ORLANDO FURIOSO in a folio edition, with, say, 7 stanzas per page, the original Italian text in the Left-hand column and Barbara Reynolds' English translation in the Right-hand column, which I've estimated would be possible in just under 700 pages -- not counting Notes and an Introduction, etc. If having just 6 stanzas per page, then it would be just over 800 pages long (plus Notes, etc.) Penguin publishes a lot of paperback and trade paperback editions, but I don't know if they've ever considered publishing a dual-language edition in folio-sized format (i.e. an 8.5" x 11" sized book, or even a 7.75" x 10.25" sized one, the size of an average magazine like "Smithsonian"). Seven stanzas per page would be 56 lines of text, with 6 spaces in-between the stanzas. The trade paperback of Reynolds' translation runs to a total of 1,254 pages (of her translation only, not counting Notes, etc.), averaging 4 stanzas per page. A slightly wider page (as in a folio edition) would allow for both the original Italian text and her English translation to be presented together, and a taller page would allow for more than just 4 stanzas per page -- 7 if one uses 9-point type, with 4-point small spaces in-between each stanza. With an Introduction, Notes, and an Index, I can imagine the whole thing being less than a thousand pages, as opposed to the total of 1,621 pages of the 2-volume Penguin edition. Add in a bunch of the Gustave Dore illustrations, and it'd be a beautiful volume to have on a bookshelf! My favorite edition of Dante's "Divine Comedy" is a 1-volume paperback published by Basil Blackwell * Oxford and New York, with the Italian text on the Left-hand page and Geoffrey Bickersteth's excellent English translation (in terza rima) on the Right-hand page. Other translations have more thorough Notes (etc.) but nothing beats having the original text accompanied by a great translation. Back in the day, 400 to 500 years ago, ORLANDO FURIOSO was as popular as STAR WARS is nowadays, or the Marvel movies. Today, it's largely forgotten. And that's a damn shame. If anyone at Penguin Books is reading this, get a clue and put out a volume like the one I dream about, a dual-language deluxe edition of the entire epic. Then hire a competent translator/versifier who can give us a decent version of Boiardo's ORLANDO INNAMORATO. Ariosto's masterpiece is, after all, a continuation of that work, upon which it improves, admittedly.

[@thelibraryladder]

Those sound like magnificent editions (the real ones and the wishlist ones)! Penguin does a terrific job with its translations and presentation of classics, and a side-by-side Italian/English edition seems like something they might do. I appreciate you sharing your experience with Ariosto's classic! Roland has long been a literary character I've enjoyed reading about.

[@stanleyhumphrey7404]

Where do i know this guys voice from? I dont even think its from the internet but some mainstream tv.....thing. i just cant place it.

[@thelibraryladder]

I have no idea. I don't have a background in broadcast media (other than this channel). :D

[@YnEoS10]

Do you have any suggested books or other resources for digging deeper into the history of the fantasy genre?

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks for your question! Here are a few books that provide different overview perspectives of the history of the fantasy genre: Imaginary Worlds, by Lin Carter; Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers, by L. Sprague de Camp; The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, by John Clute; A Short History of Fantasy, by Farah Mendlesohn & Edward James; The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature, by Edward James & Farah Mendlesohn; The Evolution of Modern Fantasy, by Jamie Williamson.

[@YnEoS10]

@@thelibraryladder thanks, much appreciated!

[@stephenbundrick7305]

Love the content of the video, but the voice is distracting. Idk if it's the way he is talking or the way the audio is recorded but it's just too much.

[@thelibraryladder]

Thanks for the feedback. It’s my normal voice (although a little hoarse from allergies), so there’s not much I can do about it.

[@reedl2353]

Sick Lin Carter burn!

[@thelibraryladder]

Setting aside his debatable merits as an author and book critic, he really was a serious fantasy historian and anthologist.

[@AnthonyEmmel]

Another fine production my friend. I have a good number of the novels featured in the collection, but I believe the only one I have with the adult fantasy imprint is C. A. Smith's Hyperborea.