First: Yes, the headline is hyperbolic and wrong. TBH so is lots of the article. But it was an interesting read nonetheless. It's about how the Del Rey imprint started and Judy-Lynn Del Rey brought in Lester, with Judy handling sci-fi and Lester pushing for fantasy, with three of his early successes being Terry Brooks, Stephen R. Donaldson and Piers Anthony.
The Man Who Invented Fantasy
Del Rey did have a major impact on fantasy as a genre. Probably not a good one. It feels like much of the high fantasy Tolkien-clones are due to his input.
Quote:
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Book publishing and retailing were revolutionized in the 1970s. Lester del Rey took advantage of that revolution, realizing that readers were hungry for derivates of Tolkien.
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Also, there's lots of interesting conversation in the comments. So far at least it has not devolved into a political flame-war or spammed ad links.
The only thing getting roasted in the comments is the author for being short-sighted.