Slate article: Lester Del Rey - The Man Who Invented Fantasy

[ZodWallop]

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.

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.

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.

[cromag]

I read it earlier. I agree with His impact on Fantasy -- from Tolkien-inspired to Tolkien-reprocessed. I think that was his formula. And the paperback fantasy shelves at Waldenbooks and B. Dalton were packed cover to cover with work he got published. For better or worse.

[Calenorn]

del Rey was clever enough to discern what the market wanted and give it to them. To us.

Was the writing juvenile? Often, yes. But so was the audience. We were adolescents having fun. There was a great deal of joy in a shlocky fantasy with a Daryl Sweet cover, or a Clone-an pulp-fest with a cover by Boris or Frank. And many of us matured into more literary tastes. But would we have done so without our youthful reads?

And I still own my 1978 Tolkien Calendar. Sue me.

[Quoth]

I read Tolkien in the late 1960s. Others before and after. I read plenty of Fantasy in 1960s and 1970s (and since) that wasn't Tolkien themed.

Maybe the Del Ray titles were less common to non-existent in local UK bookshops (I left UK in 1983)?

[Calenorn]

You may be right. Selling paperbacks through shopping mall franchise bookstores was the 1970's version of Amazon.com in the US.

[ZodWallop]

In a bit of misplaced chauvinism, I'd thought the imprint was named after Lester.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Maybe the Del Ray titles were less common to non-existent in local UK bookshops (I left UK in 1983)?

Del Rey started in 1977. I would bet that Sword of Shannara was available in the UK at that point. Same with The Covenant Chronicles. Maybe over there they just weren't published by Del Rey there.

[Calenorn]

Hmmm. I bet the date in the third paragraph should be 1974, not 1994.

Ironic!

In 1974 I could walk into a shopping mall with a $10 bill, see a movie, buy a slice of pizza and a drink, and go home with a new vinyl record album or paperback book.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Calenorn

Hmmm. I bet the date in the third paragraph should be 1974, not 1994.

No, 1994 seems correct. This is the author talking about buying fantasy books when they were younger. From there they go backwards in time to talk about the founding of Del Rey.

Besides, A Spell for Chameleon came out in 1974, so the author couldn't have been picking up Xanth novels in 1974.

[Calenorn]

I guess fantasy was still going in '94. The Hogwarts bomb didn't detonate until 1998.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Del Rey started in 1977. I would bet that Sword of Shannara was available in the UK at that point. Same with The Covenant Chronicles. Maybe over there they just weren't published by Del Rey there.

No, I have those and they are not Del Ray.
Futura for Shannara and Fontana for Covenant.
I've maybe 3000 paper books. Plenty are Fantasy. I can't see any Del Ray.
I did have some books maybe US import, the Dragonlance and related stuff. Picked it up at a chartity shop about 30c each and I gave them away after reading only one. Some of those seem like a bad clone of Tolkien, even down to supposedly humorous thieving Halflings that aren't called hobbits.

[Calenorn]

Dragonlance. You're not wrong. But it was also a tie-in with a fantasy role-playing game.

Fantasy purists hated them. RPG purists hated them. And they sold bazillions of copies.

These things usually don't make sense. See also "Beatles, The".

[Cactus Chef]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

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.

I'd argue, more charitably, that it made "high fantasy" a viable genre, which allowed both good (and bad) authors to take it up as a vocation where they might not otherwise have been able.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I read Tolkien in the late 1960s. Others before and after. I read plenty of Fantasy in 1960s and 1970s (and since) that wasn't Tolkien themed.

Maybe the Del Ray titles were less common to non-existent in local UK bookshops (I left UK in 1983)?

About the time I left London and the joys of Forbidden Planet and Dark They Were and Golden-Eyed. FP was at the time in Denmark Street, DTW&GE was in a less salubrious location where one averted one's eyes from the cards tacked in doorways... I also used to pick up second hand US SFF from The Fantasy Centre in Holloway Road.

Del Rey was only available as US import - I've got loads. Other places for my fix were Andromeda in Birmingham and Forever People on Park Street in Bristol when I was at uni there in the late 70s.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Quoth

No, I have those and they are not Del Ray.
Futura for Shannara and Fontana for Covenant.

Point is the Del Rey titles were common in UK bookshops, you just didn't know it since they were picked up by local publishers over there.