Editing Donald A. Wollheim (section)

====Tolkien controversy====
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:3 Ace Tolkien.jpeg|thumb|The [[Ace Books]] editions of ''The Lord of the Rings'', with cover artwork by [[Jack Gaughan]], who had produced many science fiction book covers for Wollheim.]]  -->
Prior to the 1960s, no large American paperback publisher would publish fantasy. It was believed that there was no public demand for it and that it would not sell. Wollheim published an unauthorized paperback edition of [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' in three volumes. It was the first mass-market paperback edition of Tolkien's epic.<ref name="silver"/> Wollheim did not consider himself a fantasy fan. In a 2006 interview his daughter, Betsy Wollheim, said:<ref name=wollheim200606>{{Cite magazine|url=http://www.locusmag.com/2006/Issues/06Wollheim.html|title=Locus Online: Betsy Wollheim interview excerpts|magazine=Locus |date=June 2006 | access-date=December 6, 2017}}</ref>

{{blockquote|When he called up Professor Tolkien in 1964 and asked if he could publish ''Lord of the Rings'' as Ace paperbacks, Tolkien said he would ''never'' allow his great works to appear in so 'degenerate a form' as the paperback book. Don was one of the fathers of the entire paperback industry, since before he spearheaded the Ace line he was the originating editor-in-chief of the Avon paperback list in 1945, so he took this personally. He was very offended. He did a little research and discovered a loophole in the copyright. Houghton Mifflin, Tolkien's American hardcover publisher, had neglected to protect the work in the United States. So, incensed by Tolkien's response, he realized that he could legally publish them and did.

This brash action (which ultimately benefited his primary competitors) was really the Big Bang that founded the modern fantasy field, and only someone like my father could have done that. He ''did'' pay Tolkien, and he was responsible for making not only Tolkien but [[Ballantine Books]] extremely wealthy. He was bitter about that, and frankly that's probably why he never got the [[Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor|Hugo]] he wanted. But if he hadn't done it, who knows when — or if  — those books would have been published in paperback?}}

This account was disputed by Tolkien, who claimed that he never received any communication from Ace prior to publication of their version.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#276 }}</ref> In any case, Tolkien had previously authorized paperback editions of ''[[The Hobbit]]'' and ''[[Tree and Leaf]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=The First Paperback Edition of The Hobbit|url=http://www.tolkiencollector.com/hobbhist.htm |access-date=April 27, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#248 }}</ref> The authorized Ballantine paperback edition of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' was then published in November, 1965. Ace subsequently agreed to cease publishing the unauthorized edition and to pay Tolkien for their sales following a [[grassroots]] campaign by Tolkien's U.S. fans.<ref>{{cite web |author=Reynolds, Pat |year=2004 |title=The Lord of the Rings: The Tale of a Text |url=http://www.tolkiensociety.com/tolkien/tale.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060908022929/http://www.tolkiensociety.com/tolkien/tale.html |archive-date=September 8, 2006  }}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=especially #270, #273 and #277 }}</ref> A 1993 court determined that the copyright loophole suggested by Ace Books was invalid and its paperback edition was found to have been a violation of copyright under [[Copyright law of the United States|U.S. law]]<ref>Eisen, Durwood & Co. v. Christopher R. Tolkien et al., 794 F. Supp. 85, 23 U.S.P.Q.2d 1150 (S.D.N.Y. 1992), affirmed without opinion, 990 F.2d 623 (2nd Cir. 1993)</ref> (at this time, the U.S. had yet to join the [[International Copyright Convention]], and most laws on the books existed to protect domestic creations from foreign infringement. [[Houghton Mifflin]] was technically in violation of the law when they exceeded their import limits and failed to renew their interim copyright). In the ''Locus'' obituary for Donald Wollheim, however, more details emerge:

{{blockquote|Houghton-Mifflin had imported sheets instead of printing their own edition, but they didn't want to sell paperback rights. Ace printed the first paperback edition and caused such a furor that Tolkien rewrote the books enough to get a new copyright, then sold them to Ballantine. The rest is history. Although Ace and Wollheim have become the villains in the Tolkien publishing gospel, it's probable that the whole Tolkien boom would not have happened if Ace hadn't published them.<ref name="Locus90"/>}}