Lancer Books

Lancer Books was a publisher of paperback books operated from 1961 through 1973 by Irwin Stein and Walter Zacharius. While it published stories of a number of genres, it was noted most for its science fiction and fantasy, particularly its series of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian tales, the first publication of many in paperback format. It published the controversial novel Candy by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg and the ribald series The Man From O.R.G.Y. Lancer paperbacks had a distinctive appearance, many bearing mauve or green page edging.

From magazines to paperbacks

Frank Frazetta cover illustration for Ted White's Phoenix Prime (Lancer, 1966).

After work on a Chicago newspaper, Stein returned to New York in 1949, where he wrote comic book scripts for Quality Comics (Doll Man, Plastic Man) and Hillman Periodicals before employment as the comic book editor with St. John Publications.^[1] During 1954, Stein and his wife Helen began a magazine company, Royal Publications, which published the magazines Our Life and Celebrity from Royal's East 44th Street offices. During 1955, Stein added the magazines Infinity Science Fiction and Suspect Detective Stories (which became Science Fiction Adventures with its fifth issue). During 1958-59, Stein published two monster magazines, Monster Parade and Monsters and Things.

As various genre magazines became less common, Stein decided to end his magazine business and begin publishing paperbacks. He launched Lancer Books in June 1961 at 26 West 47th Street. Larry Shaw, who had edited Infinity Science Fiction and the monster magazines, returned as the editor of Lancer Books in 1963. It was Shaw who negotiated the Conan series in 1966. When Shaw left in 1968, his replacement as editor was Robert Hoskins. In 1970, Hoskins and Stein brought Infinity back as a series of paperback anthologies, labeled "a magazine of speculative fiction in book form".^[2]

The company filed for bankruptcy in September 1973. In 1974, Zacharius initiated Kensington Books (with the Zebra and Pinnacle imprints), and he authored the World War II novel, The Memories We Keep (2005). Stein continued into the 1990s as a book packager.

Genres

Lancer's science fiction and heroic fantasy books were noted for his frequent use of cover art by Frank Frazetta. Frazetta began doing covers for Lancer with John Benyon Harris's The Secret People (1964) and Ted White's Phoenix Prime (1966), and later did several covers for Lancer's Conan series.

In addition to science fiction and heroic fantasy, Lancer published private-detective adventures with sexual themes, true crime and espionage stories, plus gothic romances such as Shadows (1970) by Jan Alexander (pseudonym for Victor J. Banis. Lesbian fiction authors published by Lancer included Rea Michaels (Duet in Darkness, Cloak of Evil), Sylvia Sharon (pseudonym used by Paul Little) and Florence Stonebraker.^[3]

Lancer Books published paperback editions of classic novels, reprinting public domain works. This series was designated Magnum Easy Eye Classics, as the typography of the books was larger, enabling readers to avoid eye strain. Among the authors represented in this series were H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, Rudyard Kipling, Samuel Clemens, Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jane Austen, Helen Keller and Bram Stoker. Besides the complete and unabridged text, each book included a brief, unsigned biographical article about the author. Because the works were in the public domain, Lancer included a copyright notice for the special contents (i.e., the biographical information) for each book.

Lancer also published books of social commentary, such as The Angry Black, edited by John Williams. Lancer's popular culture titles included The Beatle Book (1964). Comic strips were collected in Broom-Hilda (1971).

References

External links

• "Love or Money," The New York Times (January 25, 1998.)
• Andrew Porter, Degler #5