Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Betty Ballantine, 1919-2019


Legendary publisher Betty Ballantine died last Tuesday at age 99. She also served as my editor for Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time, and my model for the character Norah. (Her middle name and her mother's name was Norah.)

She and Ian have been hailed for their contribution to popularizing paperbacks and for nurturing science fiction. But they were also champions of visual books for adults. They were responsible for the Peacock Press series of art books in the 1970s, featuring the work of Frank Frazetta, Froud/Lee's FaeriesCarl Evers, Frank McCarthy and James Bama.
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New York Times obituary of Betty Ballantine
Wikipedia on Betty B.
Entrepreneur article about the Ballantines contribution to publishing
Previous posts
Ian Ballantine
Origins of Dinotopia: The Illustrated Book and the Ballantines
Deleted Scene from Dinotopia

2 comments:

Susan Krzywicki said...

Condolences on the loss of your friend. Interesting that you cover her into your story - she seems like a warm-spirited woman. And her accomplishments! Wonderful.

D.K. Vosburgh said...

A sad piece of news. I can only hope she knew what a great influence she and Ian had... I wonder how many young people today realize that folks from James and my generation had to scour our libraries and bookstores for fantasy-themed art and literature when we were growing up? Then the Ballantines came along with their Adult Fantasy Series of novels & anthologies (with their awesome covers by folks like Gervasio Gallardo and Robert LoGrippo), then the art books on Pyle, Dulac, Nielsen, Rackham... I felt like I was living in a renaissance. And I guess I was.