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James Patrick "Jim" Baen (October 22, 1943 Pennsylvania – June 28, 2006 Raleigh, North Carolina) was a noted U.S. science fiction publisher and editor. In 1983 he founded his own publishing house, Baen Books, specializing in the adventure, fantasy, and military science fiction / space opera genres. In late 1999 he started an electronic publishing business called Webscriptions, considered to be the first profitable e-book vendor despite not using encryption or DRM.
He was considered a controversial figure during his own lifetime, often due to his own personal style. However, with his passing, many other publishers have come to agree with his methods and principles. His stance on DRM is considered to still have been the most extreme among mainstream publishers, but has been given more and more credence since his passing.
Biography
Jim Baen left his stepfather's home at the age of 17 and lived on the streets for several months before joining the United States Army where he served in Bavaria.
After stints at CCNY and as the manager of a folk music coffee shop (a "basket house") in Greenwich Village in the 1960s, he started his publishing career in the complaints department of Ace Books. In 1972 he got the job of an assistant Gothics editor.
Baen was Judy-Lynn del Rey's replacement as managing editor at Galaxy Science Fiction in 1973. He succeeded Ejler Jakobsson as editor of Galaxy and If in 1974. While at Galaxy (which absorbed If from 1975) he largely revitalised it, publishing such authors as Jerry Pournelle, Charles Sheffield, Joanna Russ, Spider Robinson, Algis Budrys, and John Varley, and was nominated for several Hugo Awards.
In 1977 he returned to Ace to head their science fiction line, working with publisher Tom Doherty. When Doherty left to start Tor Books in 1980, Baen shortly followed and started the SF line there.
In 1983 he had the opportunity to start his own independent company, Baen Books, distributed then and now by Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster; this was possible in part thanks to release from a long-term contract by his good friend Doherty. Baen Books has established a large readership among fans of accessible adventure SF, publishing books by authors such as David Weber, John Ringo, Eric Flint, David Drake, Lois McMaster Bujold, Elizabeth Moon, Mercedes Lackey, Larry Niven, and many more.
Baen edited several anthology series, trying to combine the feeling of an anthology and a magazine. To achieve this, they were numbered and dated like a magazine and contained many magazine features: Destinies (Ace, 11 issues 1978-81), Far Futures (Baen, 7 issues 1985-6), and New Destinies (Baen, 8 issues numbered I to IV and VI to IX 1987-90). He also edited several volumes of reprints from Galaxy and If in the 1970s.
Jim Baen was very active on the web forum of the Baen website, called Baen's Bar, which he started in May 1997; his interests included evolutionary biology, space technology, politics, military history, and puns.
Baen started an experimental web publishing business called Webscriptions in late 1999 and also the Baen Free Library, where authors can make books available free of charge in the hope of attracting new readers. These innovations earned him respect in the technological community. Webscriptions is generally considered to be the first ebooks-for-money service whose product completely lacks encryption and in fact is available in a wide range of openly readable formats, and one of the first e-book publishing services that was profitable.
In 2000, he was the editor guest of honor at Chicon 2000, that year's Worldcon.
In late 2005 Baen announced a bimonthly online science fiction magazine, which was originally named Baen's Astounding Stories. After concerns over trademark infringement with Dell Magazines (publisher of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, which was originally titled Astounding Stories), it was renamed Jim Baen's Universe. The magazine, edited by Eric Flint, published its first issue in June 2006, with a number of prestigious authors (including David Drake and Timothy Zahn) contracted.
Jim Baen had two daughters, Jessica (1977) with his wife of sixteen years, Madeline Gleich, and Katherine (1992) with Toni Weisskopf. He suffered a massive bilateral thalamus stroke on June 12, 2006, and died on June 28.
References
- The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
- http://www.david-drake.com/baen.html
- http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/007658.html
- http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/004289.html
External links
- http://www.baen.com Baen Books Homepage
- Baen's Bar - The Official Forum
- Brief biography at Baen Books FAQ
- GoH Interview at Chicon website
- Early 2000s interview about electronic publishing at Futurist.com
- Obituary by David Drake
- Personal remembrance by Lois McMaster Bujold how Jim Baen started her career
- Dear Jim - John Ringo's letter to Jim Baen
- Obituaryin Los Angeles Times
- Jim Baen at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
