# Donald A. Wollheim - Maker: Editor - Date: 1914–1990 - Houses: Ace Books - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/donald-a-wollheim/ > The Ace Books editor whose unauthorized 1965 paperback of The Lord of the Rings detonated the Tolkien boom, and who went on to found DAW Books, arguably the first mass-market house devoted to SF and fantasy. **Why it matters:** Wollheim built the paperback shelf that fed the first generation of roleplayers, and his Ace edition of Tolkien turned an Oxford professor's epic into a campus phenomenon. ## Quick answers **Who was Donald A. Wollheim?** The Ace Books editor whose unauthorized 1965 paperback of The Lord of the Rings detonated the Tolkien boom, and who went on to found DAW Books, arguably the first mass-market house devoted to SF and fantasy. **When was Donald A. Wollheim born?** Donald A. Wollheim was born in 1914 in New York City and died in 1990. **What is Donald A. Wollheim known for?** Donald A. Wollheim is best known for The Lord of the Rings. **Why does Donald A. Wollheim matter to fantasy and games?** Wollheim built the paperback shelf that fed the first generation of roleplayers, and his Ace edition of Tolkien turned an Oxford professor's epic into a campus phenomenon. ## Life Donald Allen Wollheim was born on October 1, 1914, and spent his whole life in New York City. He was, in the words of *The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction*, "one of the first and most vociferous SF fans." At nineteen he sold "The Man from Ariel" to Hugo Gernsback's *Wonder Stories* (January 1934); when payment never arrived, he rallied other unpaid authors and forced a settlement. That combative streak got him expelled, briefly, from Gernsback's Science Fiction League. Wollheim was a builder of fandom's institutions. He organized the October 1936 Philadelphia gathering later counted as the first science fiction convention, founded the Fantasy Amateur Press Association in 1937, and in 1938 helped form the Futurians, the New York club whose members included Isaac Asimov, Frederik Pohl, C. M. Kornbluth, James Blish, Judith Merril and Damon Knight. In 1943 he married fellow Futurian Elsie Balter, beginning a marriage that was also a lifelong publishing partnership. He died on November 2, 1990. ## Work Wollheim wrote fiction for decades, including children's books under his own name and adult novels as David Grinnell, but his daughter Betsy later said he always knew "his great talent was as an editor." In 1943 he assembled *The Pocket Book of Science Fiction*, the first mass-market anthology of the genre. At Avon (1947–51) he put A. Merritt, [H. P. Lovecraft](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/h-p-lovecraft/) and [C. S. Lewis](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/c-s-lewis/)'s space trilogy into cheap editions and edited the *Avon Fantasy Reader*. In 1952 he joined A. A. Wyn's [Ace Books](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/ace-books/), adding science fiction to the list the following year and running it for two decades. He invented the Ace Double and used it as a nursery: Philip K. Dick, Samuel R. Delany, [Ursula K. Le Guin](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/ursula-k-le-guin/) and John Brunner all made paperback debuts there, and he nurtured Andre Norton, Marion Zimmer Bradley, [Fritz Leiber](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/fritz-leiber/), [Jack Vance](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/jack-vance/) and [Roger Zelazny](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/roger-zelazny/). He revived Edgar Rice Burroughs in the early 1960s and bought paperback rights to *Dune* in 1965. The same year he made his most notorious move. Believing that Houghton Mifflin had failed to secure the American copyright of [The Lord of the Rings](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-lord-of-the-rings/), Wollheim issued it as a three-volume Ace paperback without [Tolkien](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/j-r-r-tolkien/)'s permission, the first mass-market edition of the book. His daughter later recounted that he had acted after Tolkien refused to allow a paperback; Tolkien said Ace never contacted him. The episode, told in full at [The Ace Paperback Affair](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/the-ace-paperback-affair/), ended with an authorized [Ballantine](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/ballantine-books/) edition in 1965, a fan campaign, and Ace agreeing to pay Tolkien royalties. The Locus obituary put the paradox plainly: Ace became the villain of the story, yet the Tolkien boom might never have happened without it. After Ace's new owners ran the company into disarray, Wollheim left in 1971 and, with Elsie, founded DAW Books, named for his initials and arguably the first mass-market publisher devoted solely to science fiction and fantasy. Its first titles appeared in April 1972. Bradley, Norton, Dick, Brunner and Vance followed him; new discoveries included Tanith Lee, C. J. Cherryh and [Tad Williams](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/tad-williams/), whose [Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/memory-sorrow-and-thorn/) began at DAW in 1988. He also edited an influential *Annual World's Best SF* from 1971 until his death. ## Legacy Robert Silverberg called Wollheim possibly "the most significant figure" in twentieth-century American science fiction publishing, responsible in large measure for "the whole post-Tolkien boom in fantasy fiction." That boom is the soil in which tabletop roleplaying grew. The Ace edition put Tolkien into student backpacks in the years when "[Frodo Lives](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/frodo-lives/)" graffiti began to spread, and Ace's racks carried many of the writers [Gary Gygax](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/gary-gygax/) would later list in [Appendix N](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/appendix-n/), among them Leiber, Vance, Norton, Leigh Brackett and Burroughs. He even brushed the next generation of epic fantasy: [Robert Jordan](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/robert-jordan/) credited Wollheim's encouraging letter about an early manuscript (an offer later withdrawn) with convincing him he could write. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted Wollheim in 2002, and SFWA gave him a posthumous Solstice Award in 2009. DAW Books, later led by Betsy Wollheim and Sheila Gilbert, is still publishing more than half a century after its founding. ## Facts - His first story ran in Wonder Stories in January 1934; when publisher Hugo Gernsback failed to pay, Wollheim and other authors pressed him into a $75 settlement. - He organized the October 22, 1936, meeting of New York and Philadelphia fans later regarded as the first science fiction convention. - He edited The Pocket Book of Science Fiction (1943), the first mass-market SF anthology and the first book with "science fiction" in its title. - At Ace he invented the Ace Double, two novels bound back to back with two front covers; Philip K. Dick and Ursula K. Le Guin made paperback debuts there. - He and his wife Elsie founded DAW Books, named for his initials, which issued its first four titles in April 1972. - His short story "Mimic" became Guillermo del Toro's 1997 film of the same name. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_A._Wollheim) - [The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/wollheim_donald_a) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.