Ballantine 41 Paperback Original (1953). Cover by Joe Mugnaini
“Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there.
It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
During the early 1950s, Ballantine Books was one of the leading publishers of paperback science fiction and fantasy. Beginning with “The Space Merchants” (#21) by Frederik Pohl and C.M Kornbluth, Ballantine published paperback originals by major science fiction authors including Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Theodore Sturgeon, John Wyndham and many others. Ian Ballantine who with his wife Betty Ballantine founded Ballantine Books in 1952, announced that he would offer trade publishers original titles in two simultaneous editions, a hardcover “regular” edition for bookstore sale, and a paper-cover, low-priced “news stand” edition for mass market sale. So, these Ballantine paperbacks were true first editions.
Ballantine 41 Paperback Original (1953). Cover by Joe Mugnaini
“Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there.
It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
During the early 1950s, Ballantine Books was one of the leading publishers of paperback science fiction and fantasy. Beginning with “The Space Merchants” (#21) by Frederik Pohl and C.M Kornbluth, Ballantine published paperback originals by major science fiction authors including Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Theodore Sturgeon, John Wyndham and many others. Ian Ballantine who with his wife Betty Ballantine founded Ballantine Books in 1952, announced that he would offer trade publishers original titles in two simultaneous editions, a hardcover “regular” edition for bookstore sale, and a paper-cover, low-priced “news stand” edition for mass market sale. So, these Ballantine paperbacks were true first editions.