Ace Books - Ace As A Subsidiary

Ace As A Subsidiary

By the early 1970s Ace Books was a major Division of the old publishing company, Charter Company Inc., which was based out of the Hippodrome Building, 1120 Avenue of the Americas, in New York City.

In 1972, Ace was acquired by Grosset & Dunlap, and in 1982, Grosset & Dunlap was in turn acquired by G.P. Putnam's Sons. Ace was reputedly the only profitable element of the Grosset & Dunlap empire by this time. Ace soon became the science fiction imprint of their parent company. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Grosset & Dunlap operated an imprint called Ace Charter Books, which published mystery fiction such as reprints of the The Saint series by Leslie Charteris.

Carr returned to Ace Books in 1984 as a freelance editor, launching a new series of Ace Specials devoted entirely to first novels. This series was even more successful than the first: it included, in 1984 alone, William Gibson's Neuromancer, Kim Stanley Robinson's The Wild Shore, Lucius Shepard's Green Eyes, and Michael Swanwick's In the Drift. All were first novels by authors now regarded as major figures in the sf genre.

Other prominent sf publishing figures who have worked at Ace include Tom Doherty, who left to start Tor Books, and Jim Baen, who left to work at Tor and who eventually founded Baen Books. Writers who have worked at Ace include Frederik Pohl, Ellen Kushner, and Laura Anne Gilman.

In 1996, Penguin Group (USA) acquired the Putnam Berkley Group, and has retained Ace as their sf imprint. Ace's 2006 list includes Julian May, Patricia McKillip, and Sharon Shinn, with books from writers such as Alastair Reynolds, Charles Stross, Jack McDevitt and Joe Haldeman planned for the remainder of the year.