MOST PEOPLE ARE UNAWARE that I’m the author of the first DAW novel.

The reason that fact is not well know is fairly straightforward. Don wanted to start his new line with some big names. He persuaded two of the then biggest, Andre Norton and A.E. van Vogt, to contribute to the opening set of four monthly books (a schedule DAW rigorously maintained after the startup). So a collection from Andre Norton, Spell Of The Witch World , became DAW Book No. 1, and my novel, The Mind Behind The Eye, DAW Book No. 2. Brian Ball’s The Probability Man became No. 3, and the second big name’s eponymous The Book Of A.E. Van Vogt No. 4.

Don had accepted my novel, then titled Gold The Man, while at ACE. I learned this (news to me, because he hadn’t yet informed my agent) when I met Don for the first time, at the 1971 World Science Fiction Convention in Boston. I wasn’t that thrilled that my novel would be published as an original paperback by ACE, at that time a notoriously chintzy publisher. In England it had been published in hardback by Gollancz, under my original  title. (Don wanted a more SF oriented title, and changed it).  But of course I smiled,  and said how pleased I was. Actually, I had hoped and expected that my agent, Lurton Blassingame, would place it with a better house.

But then something very unexpected happened. I received a call from Don Wollheim saying he and wife (and co-editor) Elsie were coming to Orlando, and would like to see me while that close. I of course agreed, and a few days later Don and Elsie were sitting at my kitchen table.

I learned that Don and Elsie had driven to Merritt Island from Casselberry, where they had just persuaded Andre Norton to provide a book for DAW, the new publishing house they were planning to start. And Don wanted to take my novel with him when he left ACE, to publish under the new imprint. Since I hadn’t yet signed a contract, this remained possible.

After a brief discussion on money and terms, I learned that DAW would pay about the same as ACE. I agreed to go with the new house, and to inform my agent of the decision. And then we celebrated by going out for dinner at a nice seafood restaurant in Port Canaveral. There I learned that one bit of knowledge Blassingame had shared with me didn’t apply in all cases. In New York on the way to that Boston convention, I had scheduled a lunch with my agent and an editor. As we walked to the restaurant to meet said editor I asked Blassingame about protocol. Lurton told me the editor, who had an expense account, was always expected to pick up the check. If he didn’t, the agent did. The writer never paid.

When the check arrived at the end of an excellent dinner, landing in the center of the table, Don suddenly became very interested in the medium-high waves coming in off the Atlantic. Perhaps he had good night vision, and saw a mermaid (braless) cavorting in the foam. At any rate, after waiting a couple of minutes I picked up the check. We returned home, and  Don and Elsie left for Orlando, where they were spending the night.

To be fair, at World Con Toronto II in 1973, with DAW well established and thriving, I met with Don, Elsie and a small number of other DAW writers for lunch. When that check came, Elsie tugged on Don’s arm and suggested that perhaps DAW should pick up the bill. Somewhat grudgingly, he agreed. Elsie was the more generous and outgoing of the two, a very nice person. Don could be curmudgeonly on occasion. But the one time I asked him for a personal favor, that Kelly Freas be assigned the cover for my second DAW Book (a pb reprint of my Doubleday hardcover, Conscience Interplanetary), he agreed (again grudgingly, because Kelly demanded and got $50 more per cover than their other artists). I bought the original from Kelly, and it hangs in our living room today.

Don and Elsie are both gone now, but DAW Books lives on, and is apparently doing well. Don had a long career as an editor and anthologist (with I think Elsie frequently working at his side, often without recognition), and remains an important figure in the field. And though it hasn’t been chronicled  in the books on SF history as terribly important, I’m proud of the fact the first novel DAW published was one of mine.

Image credit: Greenhouse Scribes © Joseph Green 2014