Deuce Richardson celebrates “The Fiftieth Anniversary of DAW Books” and the role of Donald A. Wollheim therein.

For about fifteen years—under Wollheim’s firm guidance — there was an SFF golden age at DAW Books that may never be equalled.

I certainly have fond memories of several of them, though I seem to recall that relatively few made it to the UK other than on the used bookstalls. I’m uncertain if they were ever distributed new on the spinner-racks, over here. Other than in the UK’s rare specialist sci-fi shops and the dealer tables at 1980s conventions. Now there’s a topic for a fannish dissertation if someone is looking for such, Perhaps titled: Laser Focus: how British literary sci-fi fans built collections and developed tastes in the 1970s and 80s.

For those who can afford to collect DAW, rather than just pick up a couple of fondly remembered titles again, there’s a Starmont book which comprehensively covers the period, Future and Fantastic Worlds : A Bibliographical Retrospective of DAW Books (1972-1987) by Sheldon Jaffery. Not on Archive.org.

Gawd, look at those dates though. Actually they help me get into the world of Lovecraft a bit, in that (by comparison with the 2020s), those still living in Lovecraft’s 1920s could easily recall how things were in the 1870s and 80s. Much as many can today. Such drifting-away eras and their worldviews must have still been mentally and emotionally close to many oldsters in 1920s and even into the 1930s.