The Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series Is a Fantasy Genre History Lesson

Paperback publisher Ballantine Books played a pivotal role in the development and popularization of the fantasy genre. Its Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series of 83 old and new fantasy titles published between 1965 and 1974 introduced many mainstream readers to the genre and set the stage for the genre's rapid growth over the past 50 years.

This video is an overview of the paperback book series and its impact. In future videos, I'll explore in more depth individual authors and books included in the series. Note also that I've defined the book series broadly to include titles that are closely associated with the series even though, officially, they weren't part of it.

0:01 Fantasy's mid-century stigma
2:10 Ballantine's opportunity
5:24 Overview of the books
6:14 Tolkien books
7:53 Authors who influenced Tolkien
9:15 Tolkien's contemporaries
10:38 Early fantasy precursors
12:15 Exotic cultures & adventures
16:11 Weird & uncanny fiction
17:48 New authors and works
19:20 Anthologies
21:05 What happened to BAFS?
22:15 Aftermath
24:24 Ballantine's impact
26:04 Collectability

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#booktube #fantasybooks #fantasy #bookcollection #booktubesff

[vol]

The Gormenghast books are criminally underrated. I haven't finished the trilogy but the prose is awesome and the atmosphere is so whimsical

[goflowjoe]

I cannot wait for the Dunsany overview! Discovering The King of Elfland's Daughter was one of the most serendipitous moments of my reading career.

[blazemordly]

if this man isn't recording audio books for the ASMR audience, there is no hope for humanity.

[Bluecho]

Man, these covers are gorgeous. There's something about the 60s and 70s, in terms of evocative fantasy art, that modern fantasy novel covers fail to match.

[josephnash]

If you want to get thoroughly educated in the Fantasy Genre pre J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, the Ballantine adult fantasy series is a must read. It was the greatest service to fandom that Lin Carter ever did. Many of these books are in the public domain, and if you google up the list, most of them can be found free, on-line.

[duckdialectics]

I just finished a master's dissertation on how to translate Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros into Portuguese, and I was amazed by a couple of things: how little was written about him, how important Ballantine was in quite literally inventing the "fantasy brand", and how little is talked about that. Quality historical digging there, congratulations, and keep up the good work. You just got a new subscriber.

[jlstrick]

My personal library was full of Ballantine and Del Rey books. I am deeply grateful for this genre.

[PlagueKing_LordFalix]

That old fantasy artwork is all so beautiful.
Edit: I can't wait for the rest of this series. New sub.

[torreyholmes]

I owned a lot of these books as a kid in the early 1970s. Still have them. Really opened up new worlds.

[Verlopil]

I upvoted this before I even watched it and wish I could upvote again. Thank you for giving a face to early fantasy. This series of books was instrumental to my development as a fantasy reader. I was lucky enough to live near a library that thought it was important to have these books on their shelves. Not all of them made it there, but by the time I was leaving for college I'd read probably half. It's also a great place to point people to for a reference if they think fantasy only existed as epic fantasy before the current decade or so, or that there was no fantasy before Tolkien!

[jsw]

Love some of the psychedelic artwork. And the fact that these classic books were not too massive like all the lengthy series you get these days. Love the old style, very evocative writing too of Mervyn Peake, Clarke Ashton Smith. Etc

[djfountain]

My dad and I speak often about fantasy works he read and liked, and one of them was David Eddings Belgariad and Malloreon. It’s right now one of my favorite stories, and even though it’s very Tolkienesque, I appreciate what he wrote!

[rickkearn]

TLL, viewing your posts is like attending a university literature lecture. I always learn something new. Great content, quality, production and especially presentation! Cheers.

[LuxVi]

Wow! So many books I’ve never heard about!
My fantasy book list has definitely increased after watching this video.

[CyrusB]

the esthetic of this video is wonderful! Yes, I love the content of it, and I had no idea about how the Tolkien works influenced the fantasy boom in the 60s... but what I wanted to talk about was the excellent editing and camera work in this video! Outstanding, The narrative moves forward, but constantly gives us reference for what we're learning about. The eerie music is perfect fantasy. An enjoyable experience overall!

[samhoward]

I love this channel! So nice to see Katherine Kurtz get a mention on here. That first Deryni trilogy will always hold a special place on my book shelf.

[michele.monteleone]

Brilliant, I really love these in depth tales about old publishers!

[davebrzeski]

Had the series continued, I suspect Terry Brooks would have been included over Lin Carter's dead body! I will never forget Carter's review of The Sword of Shannara, which began with the line, "This war crime of a novel..."
I'm looking forward to all the promised videos, especially the Lord Dunsany overview

[abcdef]

Never let this amazing story be forgotten!

[samcostello]

It's a shame that Ballantine Books overlooked H. Rider Haggard's novel Eric Brighteyes, which I believe to be a criminally underrated book. Eric Brighteyes tells a majestic story that starts off as a loving pastiche of Icelandic family sagas before becoming a grueling tragedy that would make William Shakespeare proud. Thankfully, Newcastle Publishing Company came along to re-issue the book as part of their Forgotten Fantasy Library, which incidentally is believed to have been inspired by the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series.