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: