Panther

About Panther

Panther Books was a British paperback publisher, set up in May 1952 by Hamilton & Co. (Stafford) Ltd, best known for science fiction and for paperback reprints of hardback bestsellers.

Science fiction was one of its main genres. After Gordon Landsborough became editor in 1954, Panther concentrated on paperback reprints of bestselling hardbacks, improved its cover art and widened into general fiction and non-fiction. Its science fiction titles included Ray Bradbury's The Golden Apples of the Sun and Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy, and J. G. Ballard's Crash later appeared as a Triad/Panther paperback in 1985. By April 1966 it was based at 108 Brompton Road, London.

The Granada Group had bought Panther by 1968, making it part of Granada Publishing alongside imprints such as Paladin, which was started in 1966 by Sonny Mehta. The imprints were still edited separately. In 1983 William Collins, Sons & Co bought Granada Publishing and renamed it Grafton Books, and Panther passed to Collins with it. News Corporation, which had become sole owner of Collins, merged it with Harper & Row in 1989 to form HarperCollins, whose science fiction and fantasy list descends from the Grafton, Granada and Panther lists.

How to identify Panther first editions