Shasta Publishers
Entry updated 30 August 2021. Tagged: Publisher.
Chicago-based US specialist publisher founded in 1947 by T E Dikty, Erle Korshak and Mark Reinsberg (who soon dropped out), originally to publish books about fantasy and sf – in particular its first book, E F Bleiler's The Checklist of Fantastic Literature (1948). The company soon expanded into fiction publishing with such titles as John W Campbell Jr's Who Goes There? (coll 1948), L Sprague de Camp's The Wheels of If (coll 1949) and L Ron Hubbard's Slaves of Sleep (1948); it turned down a Hubbard book on Dianetics. All these early titles featured jackets by Hannes Bok. Subsequent publications include the first three volumes of Robert A Heinlein's Future History series and Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man (January-March 1952 Galaxy; 1953). In 1953 Shasta sponsored a novel competition in conjunction with the paperback publisher Pocket Books. This was won by Philip José Farmer with «I Owe for the Flesh». By this time the company was in financial difficulties; the book was never published and the prize money never paid. (The novel later formed the basis of Farmer's Riverworld series.) Shasta produced one or two further titles, then expired in 1957. [MJE]
see also: Small Presses and Limited Editions.
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