Avalon Books (originally Bouregy & Curl) was a small New York-based book publishingimprint owned by Thomas Bouregy & Company.
Established in 1950 by Thomas Bouregy, it would be run by his daughter, Ellen Bouregy Mickelsen, from 1995 to 2012 when it was sold to Amazon.[1] Avalon was an important science fiction imprint in the 1950s and 60s; later its specialty was mystery and romance books.[2]
On June 4, 2012 it was announced that Amazon had purchased the imprint and its back-list of about 3,000 titles. Amazon said it would publish the books through the various imprints of Amazon Publishing.[2]
Science fiction era
In the 1950s and 60s Avalon specialized in science fiction.[3] It issued hardcover material in the genre during the period, particularly in the earlier portion. Avalon issued new titles, reissued out of print titles originally from other publishers, and first editions of material that had previously only seen magazine publication. Frederik Pohl jibed in 1959 that the publisher "seems to be pursuing a policy of printing the worst books by the best writers in science fiction".[4] Its books featured cover art by Ric Binkley, Ed Emshwiller (also known as Emsh), Gray Morrow, and Michael M. Peters. Later, competition with mainstream hardcover and paperback publishers starting their own science fiction lines and the marginal nature of genre publishing in general led to the line being discontinued.
