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Curtis Warren

Entry updated 11 March 2024. Tagged: Publisher.

Founded in 1948, one of several UK publishing firms which flourished in the decade after World War Two by releasing dozens of purpose-written paperback originals in various popular genres. Before it foundered in 1954, Curtis Warren had published over 500 novels, 98 of them sf, all of them composed strictly according to length restrictions: in 1948-1950, Curtis Warren books were of 24 or 32 pages; in 1950-1953, they were of 112 or 128 pages; from 1953, 160-page volumes were the rule. Curtis Warren gained some posthumous fame for having published John Brunner's first novel, Galactic Storm (1951) under the House Name Gill Hunt; but their most reliable and prolific author was Denis Hughes: as with some of his stablemates, little is known about this author beyond the titles he wrote, mostly under house names. Other authors associated with Curtis Warren (see their entries for personal pseudonyms) included William Henry Fleming Bird, Kenneth Bulmer, John Russell Fearn, John S Glasby, David Griffiths, Brian Holloway, John W Jennison and E C Tubb.

As well as Gill Hunt, House Names used for Curtis Warren sf titles included Berl Cameron, Neil Charles, Lee Elliot, Brad Kent, King Lang, Rand Le Page, Paul Lorraine, Kris Luna, Van Reed and Brian Shaw (on one occasion spelt Bryan Shaw).

It cannot be assumed that all books published by Curtis Warren were written on hire as Sharecrops; but almost certainly almost all of them were. It remains a possibility that some of the 98 titles might have some intrinsic interest, the most likely candidates being those by Fearn, Glasby and Tubb. [JC/DRL]

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