Jim Baen, 1943-2006
Jul. 1st, 2006 10:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
womzillaEveryone who cares to know that probably already knows this, but Jim Baen died on Wednesday following a massive stroke two weeks before.
Through mutual friends, I knew almost immediately that his prognosis was not for recovery, which rendered deeply sad the long comment-streams about how maybe it was a minor stroke and he'd be soon up and about and continuing to make the world safe for science fiction. And I had enough reason to be sad; my tastes in sf diverged wildly from Baen's, but he was a force for good within the field. Foremost was his giant financial gamble on principle that readers should be treated as customers rather than thieves, which lead to the creation of the Baen Free Library and the world's only sane e-book publishing line.
Undersung in recent discussions is the degree to which Jim Baen was personally devoted to the idea that science fiction has a history older than last month's top-of-the-list. A significant portion of Baen Books's output was republishing, and unlike the completely admirable NESFA Press, Baen could actually put old sf into mass market paperback. Some of those republication projects did very well, and some of them did very well indeed--the James Schmitz collection series sold, from what I've heard, 50-100K per volume.
Also, a personal loss, he was one of the few major figures in modern sf whom I never really met. The late, lamented Fanoclasts held one meeting in Baen's house--its sole meeting on the US mainland, hosted by Fanoclast Toni Weisskopf--but Jim did not attend. He waved at us as we attendees as we went past, but that was it.
Dave Drake wrote an excellent memorial to his oldest friend which you should definitely read if you haven't, if you care about sf at all. And he and Toni conclude thus:
We're donating six.
Through mutual friends, I knew almost immediately that his prognosis was not for recovery, which rendered deeply sad the long comment-streams about how maybe it was a minor stroke and he'd be soon up and about and continuing to make the world safe for science fiction. And I had enough reason to be sad; my tastes in sf diverged wildly from Baen's, but he was a force for good within the field. Foremost was his giant financial gamble on principle that readers should be treated as customers rather than thieves, which lead to the creation of the Baen Free Library and the world's only sane e-book publishing line.
Undersung in recent discussions is the degree to which Jim Baen was personally devoted to the idea that science fiction has a history older than last month's top-of-the-list. A significant portion of Baen Books's output was republishing, and unlike the completely admirable NESFA Press, Baen could actually put old sf into mass market paperback. Some of those republication projects did very well, and some of them did very well indeed--the James Schmitz collection series sold, from what I've heard, 50-100K per volume.
Also, a personal loss, he was one of the few major figures in modern sf whom I never really met. The late, lamented Fanoclasts held one meeting in Baen's house--its sole meeting on the US mainland, hosted by Fanoclast Toni Weisskopf--but Jim did not attend. He waved at us as we attendees as we went past, but that was it.
Dave Drake wrote an excellent memorial to his oldest friend which you should definitely read if you haven't, if you care about sf at all. And he and Toni conclude thus:
Toni Weisskopf and Dave Drake suggest that people who wish to make a memorial donation purchase copies of THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN and donate them to libraries or teenagers of their acquaintance.
We're donating six.
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Date: 2006-07-01 02:54 pm (UTC)I think I met him a few times, but I know Toni a lot better.