Working name of US editor and author James Patrick Baen (1943-2006) who began his publishing career in 1972, when he became Gothics editor at Ace Books; in early years, he sometimes signed himself James Baen. He moved to Galaxy Science Fiction in 1973 as managing editor, taking over the editorship in 1974 of both Galaxy and If from Ejler Jakobsson. These magazines were then in a crisis, which resulted in their amalgamation (as Galaxy) in January 1975. Baen soon showed himself to be a capable editor, and over the next two years turned Galaxy into one of the liveliest current magazines, introducing popular columns by Jerry Pournelle (science fact), Spider Robinson (book reviews) and Richard E Geis (general comment). Galaxy also began regularly to feature the much-acclaimed stories of John Varley, and serialized novels by Frank Herbert, Larry Niven, Frederik Pohl, Roger Zelazny and others. In 1977 Baen returned to Ace Books as sf editor, becoming executive editor and vice-president before leaving in 1980 to join Tom Doherty's newly founded Tor Books as editorial director. He retained this post until his departure in 1983 to form Baen Books (which see), which he ran until his death in 2006.
As an editor of books in his own right, Baen produced some anthologies of reprints from Galaxy and If. He then produced, in Destinies, Far Frontiers (with Pournelle) and New Destinies, a sequence of SF Magazines/anthologies printing original material [for all these see Checklist below], as well as the Far Futures sequence of linked anthologies (see Jerry Pournelle). [JC/MJE]
see also: History of SF; SF Magazines.
James Patrick Baen
born 22 October 1943
died Raleigh, North Carolina: 28 June 2006
works
works as editor
Destinies
- Destinies: The Paperback Magazine of Science Fiction and Speculative Fact, November-December (New York: Ace Books, 1978) [anth: Destinies: pb/Don Brautigam]
- Destinies: The Paperback Magazine of Science Fiction and Speculative Fact, January-February (New York: Ace Books, 1979) [anth: Destinies: pb/Michael Whelan]
- Destinies: The Paperback Magazine of Science Fiction and Speculative Fact, April-June (New York: Ace Books, 1979) [anth: Destinies: pb/Dean Ellis]
- Destinies: The Paperback Magazine of Science Fiction and Speculative Fact, August-September (New York: Ace Books, 1979) [anth: Destinies: pb/Vincent Di Fate]
- Destinies: The Paperback Magazine of Science Fiction and Speculative Fact, October-December (New York: Ace Books, 1979) [anth: Destinies: pb/John Rush]
- Destinies: The Paperback Magazine of Science Fiction and Speculative Fact, February-March (New York: Ace Books, 1980) [anth: Destinies: pb/Enric]
- Destinies: The Paperback Magazine of Science Fiction and Speculative Fact: Spring Edition (New York: Ace Books, 1980) [anth: Destinies: pb/Vincent Di Fate]
- Destinies: The Paperback Magazine of Science Fiction and Speculative Fact: Summer Edition (New York: Ace Books, 1980) [anth: Destinies: pb/Davis Meltzer]
- Destinies: The Paperback Magazine of Science Fiction and Speculative Fact: Fall Edition (New York: Ace Books, 1980) [anth: Destinies: pb/Vincent Di Fate]
- The Best of Destinies (New York: Ace Books, 1980) [anth: Destinies: pb/Vincent Di Fate]
- Destinies: The Paperback Magazine of Science Fiction and Speculative Fact, Spring Edition, 1981 (New York: Ace Books, 1981) [anth: Destinies: pb/Stephen Hickman]
- Destinies: The Paperback Magazine of Science Fiction and Speculative Fact: Vol. 3, No. 2 (New York: Ace Books, 1981) [anth: Destinies: pb/]
Far Frontiers
- Far Frontiers (New York: Baen Books, 1985) with Jerry Pournelle [anth: Far Frontiers: pb/Michael Carroll]
- Far Frontiers, Volume II/Summer 1985 (New York: Baen Books, 1985) with Jerry Pournelle [anth: Far Frontiers: pb/Michael Carroll]
- Far Frontiers, Volume III/Fall 1985 (New York: Baen Books, 1985) with Jerry Pournelle [anth: Far Frontiers: pb/Michael Carroll]
- Far Frontiers, Volume IV/Winter 1985 (New York: Baen Books, 1986) with Jerry Pournelle [anth: Far Frontiers: pb/David Egge]
- Far Frontiers, Volume V/Spring 1986 (New York: Baen Books, 1986) with Jerry Pournelle [anth: Far Frontiers: pb/David Egge]
- Far Frontiers, Volume VI/Fall 1986 (New York: Baen Books, 1986) with Jerry Pournelle [anth: Far Frontiers: pb/Pat Ortega]
- Far Frontiers, Volume VII/Winter 1986 (New York: Baen Books, 1986) with Jerry Pournelle [anth: Far Frontiers: pb/A C Farley]
New Destinies [there is no #5 in this series]
other works as editor
links
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