Ballantine's Classic Library of Science Fiction


Ballantine's Classic Library of Science Fiction is a series of speculative fiction collections originally published in the 1970s and 1980s purporting to gather together the career-best short works of a selection of authors then prominent in the field. The series was conceived and published in paperback by Ballantine Books, though most of the early volumes also had initial hardcover editions issued by Doubleday's Science Fiction Book Club preceding the Ballantine/Del Rey paperback editions. A number of volumes were subsequently reprinted, both by the original and later publishers.

Title variations

The series title varied over time; with volumes published in 1974 issued without an overall title, volumes published from 1975 into 1977 called "Ballantine's Classic Library of Science Fiction," or "our Classic Library of Science Fiction" in the instance of a few Del Rey printings, and volumes published from November 1975 onward called "The Critically Acclaimed Series of Classic Science Fiction." Most volumes bore the words "Classic Science Fiction" on the above the title of the individual volume. A number of volumes were subsequently reprinted, both by the original and later publishers.

Content

Individual volumes typically included lauditory introductions by fellow authors associated or close to the authors spotlighted, and afterwords by the spotlighted authors themselves, if still living at the time of publication.

The series

Author and publication date follow each title.