Well done! I first read CONAN THE CONQUEROR by way of its Gnome Press edition.. I was eight years old and found it in a local public library. That kind of changed my life.
You're a living example of the impact Gnome had! Gnome reached the wider audience it was seeking for SF primarily through public libraries, which didn't keep paperbacks or pulps in their collections at the time. Thanks for sharing!
Great stuff. I'd say though that what these publishers did initially was allow magazine series to be fixed up (as Van Vogt put it) into book form - and of course they were instrumental in establishing genre SF as a publishing category in book form. You have an impressive collection and a great channel, good to see I'm not the only person on YT talking about the history of SF!
Thanks for the comment! While it's true that many of the books Gnome published were adapted from material previously published in the pulps, Gnome appears to have been more selective than other small presses in choosing which authors and works to adapt into hardcover format. More so than many of the other small SF presses, Gnome focused significantly on contemporary and up-and-coming authors, accelerating their popularity growth. Other presses tended to publish works from past-their-prime authors that originally appeared in pulps in the 1920s and 30s, which might have contributed to the quicker demise of those presses. I really enjoy the older classics from various genres, even though the plots and writing in the books and stories sometimes haven't aged well. I love mapping how ideas conceived in early works have inspired later generations of authors. Thanks for watching! FYI, I've sometimes daydreamed about owning and operating a used bookstore, similar to Cliff Janeway in the mystery novels by John Dunning. It's the rare type of business in which it's perfectly okay to consume your own products (before putting them on the shelves).
@@thelibraryladder -I've worked in bookselling for 38 years but have sadly never owned my own bookshop (I've never had the capital), though I have managed quite a few in my time. Like you, I'd love my own used books outlet. Like yourself, I don't think one can evaluate what's happening now without context and history and this is something I approach on my channel. I look forward to seeing more of your work here!
Just discovered your channel today!! Thank you so much for this video. I have a Gnome Press journey myself. I bought the Gnome Press first edition of Iceworld back in 2007, a well worn and practically worthless library copy. For some unknown reason I then decided to make it my mission to collect the entire Gnome Press hard cover catalog. Several copies I have are signed, and personal highlights include a Greenberg-signed Gnome Press file copy of Forgotten Planet sporting the 'giant bug' variant of the dust jacket, a limited edition numbered and signed copy of The Thirty First of February (this is the only limited edition book GP ever did. I also have the Gnome Press paperback of this), and of course I, Robot. Now, only Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation are outstanding. Over the course of the past 15 years or so, I've taken a great interest in the dawn of SF hardback publishing and Gnome Press in particular. You mentioned several important publishing milestones that GP were the first (or at least significantly early) in achieving. One I'd like to reinforce is their invention of the themed anthology; collecting a set of unconnected short stories by different authors and compiling them into a narrative arc. As I understand, this was Mr Greenberg's idea, truly a fantastic concept. For you fans out there, if you get the chance, Men Against the Stars, Journey to Infinity and in particular The Robot and The Man are stunning examples. Despite the wretched condition (the worst by far in the collection), my copy of Iceworld is very special to me as it represents the starting point for a hobby that has, and still does, give me so much joy. Again, I enjoyed this video so much. Many thanks for your research, knowledge and efforts in this excellent channel. It's a big thumbs up and subscribe from me.
Thanks for sharing that great comment! My Gnome Press journey led me to discover and collect books from several other small presses that were some of the early pioneers of SFF publishing, such as Shasta Publishers and Fantasy Press. Shasta, in particular, had a high rate of success in publishing some of the best-known SF authors of that era. Several of my Gnome copies are signed as well (including Asimov's Foundation). I envy you your copy of I, Robot. It's the only one I lack now, and is the hardest to find at a reasonable price.
That was a fantastic overview and history lesson. I didn't know much of that. The struggles of the early authors. Interesting how two people and subsequently others can change a domain so significantly with passion and force of will. Thank you for researching and presenting this. Fascinating!!
Thanks, Jed! I'm glad you found it informative and enjoyable. I love understanding the roots of most genres (many of which originated in the pulp magazines or their predecessors, the penny dreadfuls). Today's authors are standing on the shoulders of giants who invented much of the ideas and storytelling language of genre fiction.
[chuckle] It's my real voice. I'm not an escapee from Westworld. The hard surfaces in the room add a slight amount of reverb in the sound recording, but that's it.
@@thelibraryladder Back in the day, at least back in MY day, you would have stood a good chance at landing a radio job with those dulcet tones. I did based on my deep resonance, but I left it to become a writer. In retrospect, radio required a lot less effort. Really love your channel, man. In addition to the proposed Ian Fleming themed video, would love to see you rhapsodize on Hammett, Chandler, both MacDonalds and other such variations on a hard boiled theme. Thanks.
Thanks! I do have a journalism background (30+ years ago), but not the broadcast variety. I enjoy a lot of hard-boiled fiction (although I have to admit that Chandler isn't one of my favorites). I intend to feature the subgenre periodically, ranging from the Continental Op stories of Hammett, to the gritty realism of Jim Thompson and John D. MacDonald, to the comedy-tinged capers of Donald Westlake, among other videos. My main problem is simply finding the time to make them. It's going to take a while to cover the many different topics, genres and authors I want to discuss on the channel.
You should! Kyle was remarkably knowledgeable and well respected. He had a front row seat for SF's golden age. It's unfortunate that he's barely remembered today.
@@thelibraryladder I read one of his short stories (somewhere in my magazine collection)and thought “Wow, this guy can knock out a cracking story too!”
I've always thought of the Gnome Press edition of The Starmen by Leigh Brackett to be one of the best cover arts in SF. Someday I'll talk myself into buying a copy. Another great video! I believe Philip Harbottle over at '1950's British Science Fiction' also did a video or two on Gnome Press. A great, but little known channel.
I agree that's a beautiful cover. Ric Binkley, who painted it, is something of an enigma. Very little is known about him. His career as an artist was relatively short and was mostly limited to artwork for small presses such as Gnome, Fantasy Press and Avalon. Thanks for the suggestion about Philip Harbottle and his channel. I wasn't aware of it.
Thank You! This is essential knowledge toward a comprehensive view of the history of SF, of which one of the lesser known aspects is the importance of the short story era and the transition to novels.This video helps to bridge the gap. Fine work.👏
I’ve never even heard of Gnome Press, though I’ve seen some of these (pictures online). Reminding me all this great stuff I still haven’t read, like de Camp and Kuttner and Brackett. Love Moore, Hellsgarde is a favorite short story. I do have some paperbacks from the same time period, I can see why this was more lucrative. It’s a goal of mine to get that Fafhrd and Gray Mouser at some point. Awesome video 🪜!
Thanks, Liam! Gnome was the first ticket to respectability and a wider audience (through public library circulation) for many of those authors. Brackett's space operas haven't aged especially well. They're still fun to read, but many are a little hokey and seem more like space fantasies than science fiction (which may be why Lucas asked her to write the first draft of the script for TESB). Moore seems practically forgotten today, which is truly unfortunate because she was a terrific writer and was extremely popular back then. Her husband (Kuttner) was an okay writer IMO, but when they collaborated as Lewis Padgett, they wrote some true classics De Camp and Pratt are a lot of fun, although they might not appeal to everyone. They often have a unique sensibility in their stories in which they attempt to apply consistent rules (e.g., of logic and rationality) to inherently irrational situations, which results in unintended and sometimes absurd consequences. I hope you can find the Leiber book at a reasonable price. About 15 years ago, you could find decent copies on eBay for under $50 (I think I paid ~$40 for a signed copy). Now, you'd be lucky to find an unsigned one for less than $100.
At 2:19 seconds you pictured the January 1948 issue of Weird Tales,I own a copy of that it came from eBay and amazingly despite being 74 years old it’s in fantastic condition,didn’t cost much either. This was awesome.
Thanks! That's a terrific find. Most of my vintage pulps are barely holding on, given the low quality paper and binding methods used. Also, the cover art for that issue is very distinctive and is great for framing.
Wonderful video. Very balanced account of Gnome. I've read a few memoirs by science fiction authors addressing this publisher, and they are not quite so forgiving. Can't wait for the next in this series.
Thanks! If I remember correctly, Asimov referred to Greenberg as a "crook." Based on the sources I've read, Greenberg just seems to have been an inept businessman who got in over his head and couldn't raise enough working capital to pay his suppliers (including authors) reliably. Once he fell behind on his payables early on, no banks would lend him the money he needed to grow, and thus Gnome was stuck in a trap in which it could never print or sell enough copies of books to become profitable. It's incredible to me that it survived for 14 years. I hope to do an overview of either Fantasy Press or Shasta Publishers later this summer, and Arkham House closer to Halloween.
I enjoyed this talk very much and would like to know more about other historically important SF presses. Thank you for the huge effort in producing videos on such matters!
Thanks! I have nearly complete collections of most of the early small SF presses. I hope to make a similar video about either Fantasy Press or Shasta Publishers later this summer, and Arkham House in October.
Thanks very much for this historical overview. I've read Over My Shoulder, which is a great resource, but of course your presentation is able to leave it in the dust for colourful visuals. I'm a retired reference librarian with 8000 books in my home library, and have many of these Gnome Press titles. Thanks again for the wonderful nostalgia trip.
Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I've made a few more video overviews about classic publishers (including Arkham House and the Scribner Illustrated Classics and Ballantine Adult Fantasy series), and I plan to make similar videos about specialty presses such as Shasta, Fantasy Press, Prime Press, and FPCI, among others.
@@thelibraryladder You're very welcome. I've corresponded for years with a fellow book lover in California (I'm in Toronto), who home schools her granddaughter, who's reading well beyond her age (last Christmas Ray Bradbury's The Shoreline at Sunset was one of several stories I sent her; this year she's getting the Dover edition of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner with the Dore illustrations). I'm including a link to your Scribner video in my next email to them. They'll love it, and my guess is it's going to spark a mad search for many of the titles. It must be a finicky labour of love to coordinate the commentary and aptly chosen visuals so perfectly. Congratulations! Very professionally done: the result is the equivalent of a college course on the subject! Thanks again.
Your friend's granddaughter is getting a great literary education! Bradbury is my favorite short story writer, and the Scribner Illustrated Classics are among my very favorite illustrated books. I read many of them as a kid. I appreciate your kind words. I'm truly just an amateur. This channel is my first foray into video production, and I've been teaching myself how to do it as I go along (which is why it takes me a while to produce each one). My hope is that the channel might eventually become a kind of resource library of useful book-related information and that some of the videos might even find their way into classroom settings.
Very interesting... Now, I'm somewhat of a dabbler in publishing, but one thing that surprises me is the big deal about paperbacks. I've heard before how it changed the market, and on the other had, how small houses like Gnome had difficulty jumping the paperback trade. So, what was the deal? Not enough printers? Monopoly in the technology? Issues designing layouts for compact scale? It just sounds strange reading about it... from a print on demand paperback.
Great question! As I understand it, there were two main barriers preventing small presses such as Gnome from entering the paperback market themselves. One was technological and the other was self-imposed. When Gnome was founded, the technology to create paperbacks with durable, glued bindings was in its infancy and very proprietary to publishers such as Pocket Books, Ballantine and Ace. Early attempts to create paperbacks resulted in books that would fall apart easily, and Gnome didn't have the capital for its printer to develop its own high quality pb binding method (it was already in debt to the printer). The self-imposed reason is that Gnome viewed paperback editions as somewhat disreputable (i.e., better than the pulp magazines, but incapable of gaining literary respect for the SF genre). Gnome wanted SF to be taken seriously by the critics and by the wider public, and at the time, hardcover editions were the path to achieve that. Ironically, Gnome did dabble in the paperback market. First, it decided to sublicense the paperback rights to publishers such as Ballantine and Ace in exchange for a small royalty. For example, you can see at 10:07 in my video that the cover of the Ballantine paperback of Clarke's Prelude to Space states "Gnome Press with Ballantine Books." Other sublicensees included a similar statement on their copyright pages acknowledging Gnome. This gave Gnome some much-needed revenue, but not enough to get it out of debt, while likely cannibalizing its own hardcover sales. Then, toward the end of Gnome's operations, out of desperation it attempted to create its own paperbacks. However, it only had access to (and funds for) the older, inferior bindings and paper used by pulp magazines. Thus, Gnome's paperbacks were digest-sized rather than pocket-sized, and they used cheap newsprint with stapled bindings. They only printed a few of their titles in this second format, and they didn't sell well. They're hard to find these days, because they're so scarce and fragile.
@@thelibraryladder Thank you for the reply. Well, I can't add much, luckily I wasn't that that far off :) Though one point I would like to make... In a certain way history repeats itself for smaller publishers do have trouble getting out. And now they are competing with not only big and somewhat politically touchy publishers, but also cheap print on demand and e-books by Amazon, which often are not only cheap, but also free on subscription - again a thing Gnome kind of failed at. PS: Crazy to think they managed to eff up Asimov deal and rights...
Although it could be argued that writing short stories hones the writer’s craft. A beginning , a middle and an end within a few thousand words tends to concentrate form and economy of language.
I agree with the old saying that the shorter the work of fiction, the harder it is to write it well. My favorite science fiction format is the short story. It gives authors room to explore interesting ideas without the need to add layers of extraneous plot/characters/worldbuilding/etc. to pad the page length. (I'll also say that I think there are many SF novels that do a terrific job with those additional layers, but there are also many that would have been better in a short story or novelette format.)
I just discovered your channel with this video. Gnome Press indeed published many fine books and I have read many of them in their original format. Although my favorite small press has always been Fantasy Press I truly enjoyed this voyage into the past. I will be subscribing in a moment and spending a lot of time catching up.
Thanks and welcome aboard! I plan to make videos about all of the classic SFF small presses from the 1940s and 50s. I've covered Gnome and Arkham House so far, and Shasta and Fantasy Press likely will be the next two I cover.
Very well done. By coincidence, I ordered Eshbach's book last month & am looking forward to reading it, not only because his era is my favorite period of sf but also because once upon a time I was trained to be a book editor (though I wound up going into newspapers instead -- far more job opportunities, at least at the time). In the '90s I picked up maybe three Gnome Press volumes for very cheap at Little Rock library book sales (I think Shambleau, Earthman's Burden & I, Robot), but they're library discards & hence unfortunately have no dustjackets. The library in my diminutive Arkansas hometown had at least one later Gnome title, Pohl's Drunkard's Walk, in its sf section of probably fewer than 40 titles.
Thanks, Dan! The Eshbach book is fun because it's written in a rather chatty manner, almost as if he's sitting and telling a story in an informal style. I hope you still have that copy of I, Robot. Even an ex-library copy lacking a dust jacket is worth quite a bit. It's the rarest and most valuable of the Gnome books.
A really informative video - thanks! I had only heard of Gnome Press when I was researching a reading order for the Robert E. Howard Conan stories so this was illuminating.
Thanks, Josh! I'm glad you found it helpful and interesting. It can be a challenge deciding the best reading order for the Conan stories, since Howard wrote them without a clear chronological sequence. L. Sprague de Camp played a large role in determining the order of the Gnome editions, and I think his sequencing works pretty well.
Yes, I ended up reading them in the order that Gnome Press published them (rather than original publication order, which is what the Centenary edition I own had them), which made the narrative (in my mind) stronger, since it didn't jump around so much.
I have been eyeballing a bundle at my local used book store that is Tros of Samothrace and Purple Pirate. The condition isn't the best but they are readable and still have their dust jackets which are in decent shape. I just keep finding other books that i prioritize over them.
Thanks! I'm thinking about doing a bookshelf tour. Length would be a real issue, though. I'd have to break it up into separate videos for each genre, and even then, the videos would be pretty long.
Thanks! I designed an addition to my house about a dozen years ago to serve as a library for my book collection (with a 12-foot ladder!). That's where I film.
This was a fantastic video! It's crazy how much time we SFF readers spend thinking about the lore of our favorite fictional works, yet I don't think a lot of folks really take time to think about the "lore" of the real world history of the genres themselves even though that can sometimes be just as interesting lol
What a fantastic comment! That's how I feel about a lot of older and classic works. I like to know how various genres have evolved over time. A lot of excellent genre fiction written these days owes much to the early pioneers who created the tropes, ideas and concepts that are now standard elements in the genres. Thanks!
In my mind, Blish will always be associated with Star Trek, because that's how I first encountered his writing almost 50 years ago. In the late 1960s and early 70s, he wrote authorized novelizations of most of the original Star Trek episodes, which were published in small collections in a series of about a dozen books. I devoured those books as a kid. He also wrote terrific short stories, some of which he combined to to create fix-up novels. His novel The Seedling Stars is a favorite of mine. It combines several related short stories, including the all-time classic 'Surface Tension' (which can also be found in Volume I of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame anthology).
@@thelibraryladder i noticed some precursors of the Star Trek universe in A Case of Conscience. the "Federation" and subspace radio along with the utterly rational Lithians. i just found the story to be almost prescient to the current polarization in the political sphere. the 'shelter race' notwithstanding. he also makes a very astute observation on the concept of usury or money lending with interest, which was a crime but now what we base our economy on!
I used to have a number if Gnome Press books (found in the '70's in used bookstores for relatively cheap prices!), sadly had go sell them for financial reasons 😭 No way I can afford them again!! Eshbach's autobiography is indeed a great read! Another, though more niche oriented and probably more for deep dive nerds is John W. Campbell's published letters... For me 75% of the thrill of early sf was the artwork... I would first read magazine stories or books based on the artwork (The Magazine of F&SF failed a lot for me because there was no interior artwork, the cover had to sell me first)..
That's heartbreaking about your Gnome collection! I really enjoyed reading Eshbach's Over My Shoulder. His version of events doesn't always match up with other biographical accounts, and it's fun trying to discern myth from reality. I completely agree about the early SF artwork. Hannes Bok, Virgil Finlay, Ed Emshwiller and others were phenomenal.
Nearly all of the other small SF presses at the time folded by the mid-1950s. Gnome managed to hang on (barely) for a few more years. Thanks for watching!
Talking about the remuneration authors got from these pulp magazines. Didn't Heinlein in Grumbles From The Grave buy a house with the proceeds of his first short story or two? The way he tells it, he got into writing short stories because of the insane profits. Of course these profits are not compared to novels just to other jobs he could be doing like engineering, etc.
Thanks for your comment! I don't recall that story about Heinlein's house purchase, and I'd be very surprised if it actually happened. The pulp magazines didn't pay nearly enough to short story authors in the 1930s and 40s to buy a house with, unless the author was extremely prolific (publishing a few dozen stories). Each story typically earned an author (including Heinlein) between $10 and $120, depending on the story's length and on the magazine's circulation size (which affected the amount a publisher was willing to pay). And modest-sized houses cost upwards of $2,500-3,500 at the time. By the late 1940s, Heinlein was one of very few SF authors who had sufficient clout to expect up-front payment from magazines when they agreed to publish one of his stories. Most authors had to wait months to get paid (and sometimes they never got paid). But it took Heinlein years to reach that level of success/clout. He was prolific enough that he could crank out a short story over a weekend that could earn him $50 or more, which he likely considered easy money.
So do I, particularly when defined to have science fiction and fantasy on a single continuum determined by the plausibility of the science involved. Thanks for watching!
It's a piece called Galactic by film soundtrack production company Filmstro. It's possible that Xenoblade uses the same music, as I believe some video game companies use Filmstro.
The genre's been known by a lot of names over the years, including among others: scientific romance, scientific-marvelous, scientifiction, science-fiction, science fiction, sci-fi, sci fi, scifi and SF. However, I don't think the labels attached to the genre are nearly as important as its content and its impact. :)
@@thelibraryladder I completely agree, my comment was sarcastic. Last century when I had a university course on Science Fiction, the first class was devoted to a careful and nuanced conversation around exactly this question: What to call science fiction ‘for short’? It came down to Sci Fi vs SF, in terms of spontaneous support in the lecture hall. It left an impression, so your choice of one automatically reminded me of that amusing debate decades ago. Me, I decided then and there to take the long way home every time it came up and simply stick to “Science Fiction”. This was back in the 1970s.
I'm very glad to hear that! I wasn't quite sure about the tone of your initial comment. :) It's a pointless debate, and one that Sam Moskowitz attempted to put to rest in a noteworthy essay he wrote back in the 1950s. I plan to make a video in the coming months that traces the evolution of the various names by which the genre has been known. (And for the record, I use science fiction, sci-fi, sci fi, and SF interchangeably.)
