Columbia University Libraries Acquires Ballantine Books Archive

The gift includes a nearly complete run of Penguin titles in pristine condition, along with a full set of Ballantine and Bantam paperbacks, in equally fine condition, as well as an archive of the Ballantine’s work as an independent publishing team after the sale of their company to Random House.
Ballantine Books revolutionized the paperback industry, sparking a new mass market in publishing. They were one of the earliest publishers of science fiction paperbacks; they published the first authorized paperback editions of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books in the ’60s.
The Ballantine’s sold their business to Random House in 1973 but continued as independent agents, editors, and publishers for another twenty years.
The gift of books and archives strengthens the Rare Book & Manuscript Library’s considerable resource collection in the areas of publishing and book history.  There are few repositories in North America with comparable collections of publisher holdings.