Books classic science fiction What Was the First Book You Bought From Each SF Publisher? Let’s take a trip down the book-lined pathways of Memory Lane… By James Davis Nicoll | Published on May 4, 2026 Photo by Vrînceanu Iulia [via Unsplash] Comment 0 Share New Share Photo by Vrînceanu Iulia [via Unsplash] I don’t just follow authors whose work I like—I also follow editors who buy the sort of book I enjoy, and the publishers who make those books available. Often, I have very specific memories about when and where and from whom1 I bought my books, which I am sure is a great comfort to friends whose names I clearly have misplaced. In some cases, I can even tell you which was the very first book from a given publisher that I bought. Not the older publishers—or at least, not always. But the dewy-cheeked infants of publishing, lines founded after I started buying books? Those I remember. Here are five (well, maybe six) such books from my shelves. DAW Books DAW Books was founded in 1971 by Donald A. Wollheim and Elsie B. Wollheim, Early DAW had two characteristics that brought it to my attention: DAW specialized in science fiction and fantasy and DAW paperbacks had bright yellow spines that were visible from across a store2. There are whole shelves of yellow spines in my library. My first DAW was the June 1972 mass market edition of Gordon R. Dickson’s 1971 Tactics of Mistake. Tactics, part of Dickson’s unfinished Childe Cycle, details the adventures of military genius Cletus Grahame in the early days of interstellar colonization. It’s not my favourite book in the series—Cletus doesn’t show much genius, it’s just that his enemies are dolts—but it was my first DAW purchase. Orbit Books To quote Wikipedia: “Orbit Books was founded in 1974 as part of the Macdonald Futura publishing company.” I don’t know anything about the personalities involved. Oddly, despite Orbit being very much British3, the first Orbit-published book I owned was by American author Poul Anderson. Specifically, the September 1975 paperback of Anderson’s 1974 novel A Midsummer Tempest. Tempest details efforts to ensure Charles I’s victory, thus saving the Fair Folk. If “GO STUARTS FOR GREAT JUSTICE” wasn’t unusual enough4, Tempest is set in a world in which Shakespeare was the Great Historian, a world in which Shakespeare’s anachronisms (and presumably, his geographic liberties) are simple historical fact. Del Rey Books Ballantine imprint Del Rey Books was founded in 1977 and named for Judy-Lynn del Rey. It happened that her tastes and those of her rather curmudgeonly husband, Lester, lined up with mine. Each month, I’d look for the Del Rey ad in the SF magazines I read, then pester long-suffering booksellers about whether the featured books, whose release dates were unambiguously months away, had arrived yet. My first Del Rey was the March 1977 paperback of James White’s 1977 Monsters and Medics. Monsters and Medics is a collection rather than a novel. Contents include an author’s introduction, a short novel, three novelettes, and three short stories, all of which I enjoyed enough to become a James White fan. Tor Books Founded by Tom Doherty in 1980, Tor is the inspiration for this article. Or rather, @purblind.bsky.social’s question (wondering what the oldest Tor we have on our shelves are….) was the impetus. There are two books that were my first book from Tor. Which one was actually first depends on whether you count Tor as a continuation of Tor / Pinnacle Books or as two different, if closely connected, companies. If Tor / Pinnacle is just an early phase of Tor, then my first Tor was the June 1981 paperback original of Poul Anderson’s The Psycho-Technic League. The collection gathers stories from an early future history Anderson had discarded. I gather that Anderson had second thoughts about the setting’s political views, but I’d liked the individual stories and was happy to have them in one place. Also, the book had that JIM BAEN PRESENTS banner. I followed Baen from Galaxy to Ace to Tor and—but more on that later. If Tor / Pinnacle is distinct from Tor, then my first Tor was the 1982 paperback original of David Drake’s Time Safari. The Time Safari stories, which I recall as having been inspired by de Camp’s 1956 novelette “A Gun for Dinosaur,” detail the experiences of Henry Vickers as he guides would-be hunters in the age of dinosaurs. Baen Books Jim Baen5 founded Baen Books in 1983, following a somewhat convoluted sequence of events beginning with the collapse of Pocketbooks’ Timescape imprint6. Having followed Baen from Galaxy to Ace to Tor, of course I followed him to Baen. My first Baen was the August 1984 paperback of Lewis Shiner’s proto-cyberpunk novel Frontera—which tells what happened to the Martian colony after governments collapsed on Earth. So, those are my firsts with those particular publishers. Do you remember your first books from various publishers? If not, you can probably work out what they must have been using the ISFDB. It is a game everyone can play.[end-mark] I gather booksellers don’t expect customers to thank them for their excellent service half a century after the store in question went out of business. ︎It may surprise people to learn that I am much more adept at spotting books and book-related items than anything else. I once failed to notice the schoolmates I was looking for because my attention was distracted by an unfamiliar-to-me Book Nook two blocks behind them. Don’t worry! I did manage to slip away from the field trip to buy a couple of bags of books. ︎The US Orbit came along much, much later. ︎The only reason Charles I is not the worst king ever is because “worst king ever” is an exceedingly competitive field. Looking at you, Emperor Huizong! ︎With Tom Doherty’s assistance. It apparently still comes as a surprise to some fans to learn that Doherty has always been and still remains a silent partner in Baen Books. ︎For reasons of word count, I am limiting myself to publishing lines that are still around. That said, my first Timescape book was Syd Logsdon’s 1981 A Fond Farewell to Dying. (I’ve written in more detail about the Timescape line here, if you’re interested.) ︎The post What Was the First Book You Bought From Each SF Publisher? appeared first on Reactor.