James Baen
James Baen was a prominent figure in the science fiction publishing world, recognized as one of the most influential editors following the era of John W. Campbell, Jr. He founded Baen Books in 1983, bringing innovative approaches to the genre, including a focus on military science fiction and the revival of space opera. Born in 1943, Baen had a diverse background, having served in the U.S. Army and managed a folk music coffee shop in Greenwich Village during the 1960s. His journey into publishing began at Ace Books, where he initially worked in the complaints department before moving into editorial roles. Notably, he published a unique paperback magazine called "Destinies" and later established "New Destinies," further contributing to the science fiction landscape.
Baen was known for recruiting and publishing a range of popular authors, such as David Weber and Lois McMaster Bujold, keeping successful series consistently in print. He was also a pioneer in using technology to engage readers, creating Baen's Bar, an online chat room, and offering CD-ROMs with books that included previous works by the author. Baen passed away in 2006 at the age of fifty-two, leaving behind a lasting legacy in the science fiction community.
On this Page
Subject Terms
James Baen
Writer
- Born: October 22, 1943
- Birthplace: United States
- Died: June 28, 2006
Biography
James Baen was probably the most influential science-fiction editor to follow John W. Campbell, Jr. (1910-1971), whose editor years at Astounding/Analog magazine (1937-1971) introduced many “golden age” science-fiction authors and raised the standards of the genre. In Baen’s case, the editing was at his own Baen Books, which he formed in 1983 and to which he brought several innovations as well as more popular authors.
Baen, born in 1943, served in the U.S. Army and managed a folk music coffee shop in Greenwich Village in the 1960’s. He had read his first science-fiction story at age nine, but it was reading Arthur C. Clarke’s “Against the Fall of Night” at age eleven that led to his desire to go into producing the genre. He entered publishing by a back door, making a deal at Ace Books to work in its complaints department for one year in return for a shot at the first editorial opening that came along. At Ace, though, the editing job he landed was in gothics. So he sought and obtained the post of managing editor at Galaxy magazine, when it became vacant, and stayed there for two years.
In 1978, he landed the post of editor at Ace science-fiction books, moving up to executive editor and vice president before leaving, when the company was purchased by Grosset & Dunlap. During his years at Ace, he published a kind of paperback magazine titled “Destinies,” and almost a dozen books from 1978 to 1981, mixing hard science fiction with science fact columns. Once he established his own publishing house, he continued that format under a new title, “Far Frontiers,” with Jerry Pournelle, publishing six issues during 1985 and 1986, before launching “New Destinies,” which ran nine issues from 1987 to 1990.
In 1980, he became editorial director at Tor Books. He stayed there until offered the opportunity to form his own imprint, Baen Books, which distributed through Simon & Shuster but maintained its own identity as a science-fiction publisher. Baen Books has been characterized as the home of “military science fiction,” but a more accurate accolade might be that it revived the science-fiction “space opera,” which was once the mainstay of the field. Baen recruited and published writers such as David Weber (whose “Honor Harrington” series features a female Horatio Hornblower in a galactic adventure setting), David Drake, Lois McMaster Bujold, Elizabeth Moon, James Hogan, Mercedes Lackey, Larry Niven, Steve White, and others. When a series proved to be as popular as Weber’s had, Baen keept the entire run in print.
Updating his 1960’s coffee house, Baen established an Internet chat room, Baen’s Bar. Another innovation was giving away a CD-ROM with a book on which some or all of the author’s previous Baen books were loaded. The theory behind that, he said, was that buyers would read enough of the earlier books to interest them but would get tired of reading them on a computer screen and want to buy them.
Baen sufferred a massive stroke on June 12, 2006, and died sixteen days later, at the young age of fifty-two.