Ian Ballantine; Founded 3 Paperback Book Firms

Ian Ballantine, 79, a prolific publisher who founded three major paperback companies and believed that people would read a variety of books if they were affordable and accessible.

Ballantine and his wife, Betty, launched Penguin U.S.A. in 1939, reprinting imported classics such as H.G. Wells’ “The Invisible Man.” They left Penguin in 1945 to start Bantam Books, where their first list included “Life on the Mississippi” by Mark Twain, “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck and “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In 1952, they formed Ballantine Books, which concentrated on paperback originals by such authors as Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke and J.R.R. Tolkien. Random House bought the company in 1974, and the Ballantines rejoined Bantam, working on books by such authors as Chuck Yeager and Shirley MacLaine. The Ballantines won the Literary Market Place’s Lifetime Achievement award last month. In Bearsville, N.Y., on Thursday of a heart attack.