Donald A. Wollheim

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Donald Allen Wollheim (October 1, 1914 – November 2, 1990) was a science fiction writer, editor, and publisher. He published his own works under pseudonyms, including David Grinnell.

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 United States.

He left Avon Books in 1952 to work for A. A. Wyn at Ace Books, and in 1953 introduced science fiction to the Ace lineup. Ace was well known for the Ace Doubles series which consisted of pairs of books, usually 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 views. However, it was also during the 1950s he bought the book Junk by William S. Burroughs, which, in his inimitable fashion, he retitled Junkie.

His penchant for changing titles led his colleague 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 1965, exploited a loophole in international copyright law to publish an unauthorized Ace edition of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien in three volumes — the first mass-market paperback edition of Tolkien's epic. Wollheim did not intend to pay Tolkien royalties. Wollheim was probably aware that Ace would face legal action as a result but gambled that sales of the pirate edition would be high enough to offset any legal losses. Ace were forced to cease publishing the unauthorised edition following a grass-roots campaign by Tolkien's US fans and make a rather nominal payment to Tolkien.

After leaving Ace he founded DAW Books in 1971, named by his initials, which can claim to be the first mass market 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 (1974) 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 (although from 1965 to 1970, he co-edited it with Terry Carr. From 1971 to 1990, Wollheim co-edited it with Arthur W. Saha).