Comments on: Couples Who Mastered Publishing, No. 2:The Ballantines

By: Isabel Raschkind Stein

Isabel Raschkind Stein — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 16:51:48 +0000

I was lucky enough to work with Ian and Betty at Ballantine Books in the early 1970s. They were both remarkable, visionary people.

Betty was a wonderful mentor to me and a very nurturing editor to her authors. She championed science fiction authors before science fiction became very popular and also was very interested in environmental issues and healthy living.

Their corgi, Rufus Ballantine, frequently came to the office and lent the place a homey touch. I heard that when they first started they had so few staff that they had to list Rufus as the treasurer.

By: Neil in Chicago

Neil in Chicago — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 15:13:25 +0000

Ian Ballantine was Emma Goldman’s nephew.
I think my brain just froze.
(I assume you know she’s buried here, in Waldheim Cemetery, but you may not have known that her birthday, at the end of June, is usually an impromptu picnic party in the anarchists’ section.)

By: Sue London

Sue London — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 02:27:55 +0000

With this information I’ve told my husband that our new career path is obviously to start a publishing house. This type of career change in our 40s shouldn’t be a problem, right?

By: Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey

Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 14:21:12 +0000

I’m wondering what the author of Nerves ’86– sorry, Chernobyl– is thinking about the news from Japan these days.

By: Robert Nowall

Robert Nowall — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 13:17:52 +0000

What about the couple who used to run Walker & Co?

…and, for all I know, may still run it?

By: Malcolm Edwards

Malcolm Edwards — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:08:18 +0000

I don’t know a lot about US publishing history, but I know enough to know that Knopf was founded and run for years by Alfred and Blanche Knopf, and that Pantheon was founded and run by Kurt and Helen Wolff.

Here in the UK, various companies — Futura, Century, Orion — were founded and run for a while by a small group which included Anthony and Rosie Cheetham.