Betty Ballantine

Who is Betty Ballantine?

Betty Ballantine is an American publisher, editor, and writer. She and her husband Ian Ballantine helped create Bantam Books in 1945 and established Ballantine Books in 1952. They became freelance publishers in the 1970s. Their son Richard is an author and journalist specializing in cycling topics.

Ian and Betty Ballantine won one special World Fantasy Award for professional work in 1975 and another one shared with Joy Chant and other creators of The High Kings, a reference book on the Matter of Britain that incorporates retellings. Betty Ballantine received a Special Committee Award from the annual World Science Fiction Convention in 2006 and a World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement from the World Fantasy Convention in 2007. The Ballantines were both inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2008, with a shared citation.

Betty Ballantine wrote a novel, The Secret Oceans, published by Bantam in 1994 with illustrations by twelve artists. School Library Journal wrote, "This info-novel is a modern-day, ecology-oriented 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for kids."