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A member of the Futurians, he was one of the leading influences on the development of science fiction and science fiction fandom in the 20th century.
He began editing Ace Books' science fiction line in the late 1950s and initiated the Ace Doubles series which consisted of pairs of books, ususally by different authors, bound back-to-back, with two "front" covers. Because these paired books had to fit a fixed total page-length, one or both were usually heavily abridged to fit, and Wollheim often made many other editorial alterations and title changes - as witness the many differences between Poul Anderson's Ace novel War of the Wing-Men and its definitive revised edition, The Man Who Counts. He seems to have made a number of changes solely to suit his own conservative politics. However, it was also during the fifties he bought the book Junk by William S. Burroughs which in his inimitable fashion he retitled Junkie.
His penchant for changing titles led his collaborator and later competitor Terry Carr to quip, "If Don Wollheim had published the Bible [as an Ace Double], it would be War God of Israel / The Thing with Three Souls."
It was Wollheim who, in 19651965 was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). Events January-February January 4 United States President Lyndon Johnson proclaims his " Great Society" during his State of the Union address. January 14 Prime Ministers of N, exploited a loophole in international copyrightA copyright is a form of intellectual property that grants its holder the sole legal right copying their works of original expression, such as a literary work, movie, musical work or sound recording, painting, computer program, or industrial design, for a law to publish an unauthorized Ace edition of The Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the Rings is an epic fantasy story by J. Tolkien, a sequel to his earlier work, The Hobbit''. For more information on the fictional universe the story takes place in, including lists of characters and locations, see Middle-earth. The story's n by J. R. R. TolkienHe is wearing a WWI-era British Army uniform in this photograph. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien ( January 3, 1892 September 2, 1973) was the author of The Hobbit and its sequel The Lord of the Rings his most famous work. A former pupil of King Edward's School, in three volumes - the first mass-market paperback edition of Tolkien's epic. Wollheim was probably aware that Ace would face legal action over the issue but gambled that sales of the "pirate" edition would be high enough to offset any legal losses. In any case, the débacle brought Ace into the limelight.
After leaving Ace he founded DAW Books in 1971, named for his initials, which can claim to be the first specialist science fiction and fantasy fiction publishing house. In later years his conservatism seems to have mellowed; when his distributors, New American Library , threatened to withhold distribution of Thomas Burnett Swann 's Biblical fantasy How are the Mighty Fallen ( 19741974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). Events January-February January 5 Dungeons & Dragons officially released. February 4 Patricia Hearst, the 19 year old granddaughter of publisher William Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped) because of its homosexual content, Wollheim fought vigorously against their decision and they relented.
He also published a popular "Best of the Year" anthology that lasted from 1965 until his death in 1990 (though, 1965-1970, he co-edited it with Terry Carr and 1971-1990, co-edited with Arthur W. Saha ).
External links:
Wollheim, Donald A. Wollheim, Donald A. Wollheim, Donald A. Wollheim, Donald A. Wollheim, Donald A.