Sunday, March 30, 2014

The Meteoric Rise and Fall of Gnome Press

The Meteoric Rise and Fall of Gnome Press 

10 comments:

Bud said...

Thanks for the ref. Gnome, as it was started and operated, came at probably just the right time in SF&F. It wouldn't have succeeded earlier and was probably doomed to demise by its originators/operators. But just look at the jump-start it gave to so many outstanding authors!

Unknown said...

Gnome did have a great list of writers. I wish I owned a few of those books!

Tom Johnson said...

Sadly, I only kept two Gnome Press books, both by George O. Smith: PATTERN FOR CONQUEST and PATH OF UNREASON. Wish I had kept all the other books (sigh).

Unknown said...

I expect they're all pretty pricey these days.

Marsdon said...

My Gnome is Leiber's Two Sought Adventure autographed by Leiber, Fafard, and The Gray Mouser. I was lucky in that growing up the Glendale library had a good selection of the Gnomes and the FPCIs. One of the main librarians liked scifi!

A couple of other publishers in the period I wish I still had are the Winston YAs and the Avalon ones (most of which I have never seen)

Unknown said...

I loved the Winston books. I've seen a couple of Avalons, but that's it.

Anonymous said...

It's remarkable how many ways the no-budget publishers Robert Lowndes worked for nonetheless were visible in various ways throughout the century...at the same time he was putting together Avalons, he was choosing and introducing classics for Airmont Books, whose remainders, at least, would pop up as late as the early '90s in various spots, and I certainly had a few of his as my first editions.

Meanwhile, this little essay nudges me at how much better it could've been done. If anything, Gnome was hardly a meteor, rather than a headcold the field didn't quite shake for some time, while waiting for the more responsible small presses (Arkham) and the major and minor pros (from Doubleday to Pellegrini) to wise up.

Unknown said...

I've sometimes wondered if Airmont books ever showed up on the newsstands and revolving racks. I never saw them there, but they were all over the used-book stores later on.

Todd Mason said...

I'm Anon, above, and thanks for rescuing the comment...a belated look at a certain mailing list suggests I'm not the only discontented reader of the essay or its fellows.

Well, I found my first Airmont in a tag sale, so who knows where the original provenance was. Book N Card in Merrified, VA, which closed not too long after, had a table-full of fresh copies of their books from someone's warehouse, ca. 1994...

Unknown said...

I've seen a lot of Airmonts with remainder tags. I'm not aware of any of their titles that are sought by collectors. I have several of them, though.