<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Del Rey Books was founded by the late Judy-Lynn Del Rey and her husband, noted science fiction author Lester Del Rey. The Del Rey Books imprint was created in 1977 as a division of Ballantine Books, a division of Random House. Judy-Lynn had been an associate editor at the magazine Galaxy Science Fiction, then moved to Ballantine in 1973. Judy-Lynn Del Rey remained with the imprint until her death in 1986, and Lester Del Rey died in 1993.

Judy-Lynn worked tirelessly to gain greater prominence among the Ballantine list for the Del Rey titles, with tremendous success with the likes of Anne McCaffrey (The Dragonriders of Pern), Terry Brooks (The Sword of Shannara), Stephen Donaldson (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever), and a then-unknown movie property, Star Wars, by fledgling director George Lucas. Del Rey embraced several noted Ballantine series, including the Tarzan and John Carter novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the works of H. P. Lovecraft, and the Lord of the Rings novels by J. R. R. Tolkien. More recently the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams has been moved to Del Rey.

Other notable authors who have been published by Del Rey include bestsellers and award-winners from around the world, such as Greg Bear (Darwin’s Children), John Birmingham (Weapons of Choice), Arthur C. Clarke (Childhood’s End), Eric Flint (The Rivers of War), David Gemmell (Legend), Laurell K. Hamilton (Kiss of Shadows), Greg Keyes (The Briar King), China Miéville (Perdido Street Station), Elizabeth Moon (The Speed of Dark), Richard Morgan (Altered Carbon), Harry Turtledove (Guns of the South), and more. Del Rey has published prominent media-related projects, and was the first mainstream publisher to launch a dedicated manga (Japanese comics) imprint, in partnership with the Japanese publisher Kodansha.