Snowdog’s on vacay this weekend
Tor’s Worlds Without Death or Taxes
When is a mainstream publisher also an anti-authoritarian propagandist? When it publishes science fiction.
High in Manhattan’s famous Flatiron Building you’ll find the headquarters of Tor Books, the most successful science fiction publisher in the world. The Flatiron is a monument to mad Belle Epoque futurism, with a wedge shape that makes right angles rare. Inside Tor’s cramped office, drifts of books cover every horizontal surface and most of the vertical ones. The mind boggles at the destruction that could be wrought here by a dropped match, let alone a misfired laser gun.
Tor publishes between 110 and 120 new original titles each year, routinely topping the science fiction bestseller list compiled by the industry magazine Locus. For 20 years running, it also has won the highly respected Locus Award for the best science fiction publishing house. This year Tor earned yet another distinction when its authors claimed all five finalist spots for the Prometheus Award, the annual prize for best science fiction novel of the year handed out by the Libertarian Futurist Society.
So is this the most successful libertarian propaganda venture in modern history? Publisher and founder Tom Doherty denies any ideological agenda. “First comes the story,†he says. His only stated goal is to “do a story in a way that’s honest.â€
Science fiction has long served as a kind of mad scientist’s basement lab for testing out different political,economic, and social arrangements. Tor’s success suggests that science fiction’s commitment to meditations on the importance of human freedom remains strong, as mainstream writers borrow more freely from the once-ghettoized genre, indulging in science fiction–style hypotheticals that probe both the outer limits of and existential threats to liberty.
“Libertarianism is very much part of the intellectual argument of science fiction,†says longtime Tor editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden. “It’s impossible to be a part of the argument of science fiction without engaging both broad libertarian ideas and also specifically the whole American free market intellectual tradition.â€
Hit the link and read on. You know you want to.
Ehhh, I prefer Baen; though Tor is a close second.
Yeah, but Tor begat Baen, so that counts for something.
Not exactly, Lester Del Rey and Ace books begat Tor and Baen.
Tom Doherty and Jim Baen both worked for Ace; and Les and Judy Del Rey were strong influences on both their careers.
Baen left Ace in ’75 to work for Del Rey, then founded Baen books in ’83. Doherty left Ace in 1980 to found Tor (technically Tor is an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates.
In an interesting coincidence (to me at least), Doherty is my distant cousin.
Tor and Baen.
Baen and Tor.
It’s like 80% of my library.
There is a common theme to their books and I would not necessarily call it libertarian. More like the triumph of the individual.
Back to writing…
Well, from the article:
“Doherty’s management philosophy centers on hiring good people and letting them have their way. He lured fellow Ace employee Jim Baen to Tor soon after it was founded, and they quickly built the company into a powerhouse before Baen left in 1983 to found his own imprint, Baen Books. To this day Tor maintains a friendly rivalry with Baen, and Doherty retains a silent partner stake in Baen Books.”
But yes, without the Del Reys, lots of things wouldn’t have happened in the SF community. The critical role of a good publisher is, I think, unacknowledged among lots of SF fans who (naturally, I suppose) focus on the writers.