Ivy Books
Ivy Books is a Ballantine mass-market paperback imprint, now within Penguin Random House, that by the early 2000s published only romance fiction.
- Editions tracked
- 46
- First editions
- 42
- Books
- 45
- Years
- 1979 to 2004
Ivy Books is a publisher active from 1979. We track 46 editions it published between 1979 and 2004, 42 of them first editions across 45 books. Each book lists its first edition and the points that identify it.
About Ivy Books
Ivy Books is a mass-market paperback imprint of Ballantine Books, part of Random House within Penguin Random House, known mainly for romance fiction.
The University of Birmingham's romance fiction wiki dates Ivy's founding to 1987 and says it later merged with Ballantine, which kept it as an imprint; after Ballantine came under the Random House Publishing Group, Ivy became one of its paperback lines. No second source we found confirms the 1987 date, so it should be treated as provisional.
Ballantine itself was founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine and his wife Betty. Random House bought it in 1973, and Bertelsmann bought Random House in 1998. Ballantine's own imprint list still includes Ivy.
In 2002, when the Ballantine Books Group gave each of its imprints a sharper identity, Publishers Weekly reported that Ivy was devoted solely to mass-market paperback romance.
We have not yet written the guide to Ivy Books's first-edition conventions. Until we do, check each book's own page: we list its points where we know them. Know how Ivy Books marked its firsts? Tell us.
Published by Ivy Books
Frequently asked questions
How many Ivy Books books does MyVolumes track?
We track 46 editions published by Ivy Books, 42 of them first editions, across 45 books.
Where these facts come from
- Ballantine Benefiting from Broader Publishing Program, Publishers Weekly, 2002 (publishersweekly.com)
- Ivy, Romance Wiki (University of Birmingham), 2008 (romancewiki.bham.ac.uk)
- Ballantine Books, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 17 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.