Ansible Editions
A small press run by Dave Langford, initially with various partners. It began as Ansible E-ditions with Chris Priest in 2003, publishing sf by David Masson and John Sladek as ebooks and later as print-on-demand co-published with Wildside Press. With Greg Pickersgill, Langford published three printed volumes collecting (for the first time, in 2012–13) the critical columns of Algis Budrys from the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 1975–1993. He continued, solo, to produce Ansible Editions reissues of his own writing, both backlist titles and new collections, mostly in ebook form.
In 2016 AE published the first book edition – much expanded from its fanzine incarnation – of Rob Hansen's Then, and the first ebook of Yvonne Rousseau's 1980 The Murders at Hanging Rock (also with added material). Further paperbacks include previously uncollected or unpublished work by Brian Aldiss, Algis Budrys again, John Sladek again, Peter Nicholls (with proceeds to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction) and Ted White (with proceeds to TAFF).
Since 2015, AE has reissued numerous fan classics – including The Enchanted Duplicator (May 2015), most if not all past TAFF reports and such collections of notable fanwriting as Charles Burbee's The Incompleat Burbee (February 2022), Terry Carr's Fandom Harvest (May 2019) and Harry Warner, Jr.'s All Our Yesterdays: The Fanzine Columns – as free ebooks downloadable from the TAFF website. In 2024 there was a push to include GUFF as well as TAFF reports, with an initial batch of ten previously published GUFF reports added on 1 November 2024. Ebooks newly created or significantly expanded for this download page are listed in the table below. Further fannish titles are in preparation, usually announced in Ansible as they appear.
A new experiment from 2022 onward was the re-release of selected ebooks as trade paperbacks via Lulu.com with all proceeds going to TAFF. Available as of October 2024 are (listed, for simplicity, alphabetically by author/editor):
- Frank Arnold's The Frank Arnold Papers (expanded 2024)
- Terry Carr's Fandom Harvest II
- ed. Graham Charnock: Running Amok in the Fun Factory
- A Vin¢ Clarke Treasury
- Rob Hansen's 1957: The First UK Worldcon
- 1965: The Second UK Worldcon
- Beyond Fandom
- Bixelstrasse
- British SF Conventions Volume 1: 1937–1951
- British SF Conventions Volume 2: 1952–1957
- Challenging Moskowitz
- Faan Fiction 1930–2020
- Generation Femizine
- Homefront
- True Rat: The Beast of Leroy Kettle
- ed. Dave Langford: New Worlds Profiles
- Charles Platt's The Complete Patchin Review
- Bruce Sterling (et al.)'s The Complete Cheap Truth
- William F. Temple's Temple at the Bar
The list of "TAFF Benefit Paperbacks" also includes two volumes of Ted White editorials mentioned above, whose ebooks are not free but sold for TAFF as well, and Kevin Smith's paperback trip report Nothing, which can be read on his website but has no ebook edition.
New TAFF / fanhistory / other ebooks[edit]
Note once again that this table includes only those that were newly created or significantly expanded, so not for example those classics mentioned above (with publication dates). Ebooks prepared for TAFF by AE include over 50 other titles, "simply" converted into ebook formats from older editions through Fanac.org or eFanzines scans, or rescanning by Langford, like Fanorama by Walt Willis.
Also note that Hansen's titles are usually a special form of fanthology, reprinting much text by others but interspersed with his own substantial comments. These are credited as "edited by Rob Hansen" on the cover, with other authors listed inside.
| Author / editor | Title | Date | Notes / editor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dave Langford | Don't Try This At Home | July 2015 | convention reports 1976–2014; also issued as trade paperback in 2021 |
| Vin¢ Clarke | A Vince Clarke Treasury | Oct 2015 | Edited by Dave Langford |
| Various | TAFF Trip Report Anthology | July 2017 | Unfinished TAFF reports; ed. Langford |
| Various | Running Amok in the Fun Factory | Nov 2017 | UK con reports selected by Graham Charnock |
| William F. Temple | Temple at the Bar | Nov 2017 | Edited by Rob Hansen |
| Frank Edward Arnold | The Frank Arnold Papers | Dec 2017; considerably expanded Oct 2024 | Edited by Rob Hansen |
| Ron Bennett | The Complete Skyrack | Dec 2017 | ed. Dave Langford; 1960s UK newszine |
| Leroy Kettle | True Rat: The Beast of Leroy Kettle | Jan 2018 | Edited by Rob Hansen |
| Peter Roberts et al | The Complete Checkpoint | Nov 2018 | ed. Dave Langford; 1970s UK newszine |
| R. Lionel Fanthorpe | Down the Badger Hole | March 2018 | Original version edited by Debbie Cross; expanded by Dave Langford |
| Francis T. Laney | Ah! Sweet Idiocy! | April 2019 | ed. Dave Langford; incl. responses by Alva Rogers and Harry Warner, Jr. |
| Terry Carr | Fandom Harvest II | June 2019 | Edited by Dave Langford |
| Bruce Sterling | The Complete Cheap Truth | June 2019 | Edited by Dave Langford |
| Charles Platt | The Complete Patchin Review | July 2019 | Edited by Dave Langford |
| Various | Then Again: A UK Fanhistory Reader 1930–1979 | August 2019 | ed. Rob Hansen with joint credit to Vin¢ Clarke for past research |
| Various (anonymous) | The Astral Leauge Dossier | Sep 2019 | ed. Dave Langford; includes Jackie! |
| Various | Challenging Moskowitz: 1930s Fandom Revisited | November 2019 | Fans' responses to The Immortal Storm; ed. Rob Hansen |
| Bob Shaw | The Serious Scientific Talks | November 2019 | 15 Talks incl. 5 previously uncollected, 5th added Aug '20. No editor given, Publisher's Note by Langford |
| Harry Warner, Jr. | All Our Yesterdays: The Fanzine Columns | December 2019 | ed. Chuck Connor (1991/6); with missing text restored and an additional column. Further expanded July '20, March '23 |
| Various | Homefront: Fandom in the UK 1939–1945 | February 2020 | Edited by Rob Hansen; see War |
| Algis Budrys | A Budrys Miscellany: Occasional Writing 1960–2000 | May 2020 | Edited by David Langford |
| Bob Shaw | The Full Glass Bushel: All the Hyphen Columns, and More | June 2020 | ed. Rob Jackson and David Langford |
| Bob Shaw | Slow Pint Glass: Volume Three of The Complete Bob Shaw | August 2020 | ed.Rob Jackson and David Langford |
| Ella Parker | The Harpy Stateside | December 2020 | ed. Rob Hansen; including and continuing the trip report Parker's Peregrinations |
| Chuck Harris | Creative Random Harris | March 2021 | ed. Rob Hansen and David Langford |
| various | Faan Fiction 1930–2020: an exploration | June 2021 | Edited and with critical commentary by Rob Hansen |
| D.R. Smith | The Road to Fame | June 2021 | 1940s fan fiction; author's profile by Rob Hansen |
| Rob Hansen | American Trips | July 2021 | Reports on Rob's post-TAFF US cons |
| Walt Willis | Willis Discovers America and other fan fiction | July 2021 | Collecting Walt's shorter fan fiction |
| Various | Bixelstrasse: The SF Fan Community of 1940s Los Angeles | November 2021 | Edited by Rob Hansen |
| "Harry Hurstmonceaux and Cyril Faversham" | The Harrison Saga: The Extraordinary Exploits of Sir William Makepeace Harrison | March 2022 | Edited by Rob Hansen; see Harrison – 1957–75 humorous UK fanzine stories |
| Charles Burbee | The Incompleat Burbee Volume 2 | April 2022 | Edited by Terry Carr; further Burbee pieces added by David Langford |
| edited by Rob Hansen | 1957: The First UK Worldcon | June 2022 | On Loncon 1 |
| Ella Parker | The Compact Ella Parker | Aug 2022 | Ella's other fanwriting, ed. Rob Hansen |
| Walt Willis and Madeleine Willis | TAWF Times Two | December 2022 | 1962 Tenth Anniversary Willis Fund trip reports, Twice Upon a Time and (never before collected) The DisTAWF Side |
| Ethel Lindsay | The Lindsay Report | Dec 2022 | 1962 TAFF trip report |
| Walt Willis | The Harp in England | March 2023 | UK con reports (mostly 1950s) |
| Walt Willis | The Harp Stateside | March 2023 | Expands the 1957 edition with further material inc. a speech transcript |
| Walt Willis | The Harp That Once or Twice | March 2023 | All the Harp columns except the Stateside ones; incl. 2 published after Warhoon 28 |
| edited by Rob Hansen | British SF Conventions Volume 1: 1937–1951 | June 2023 | On UK early conventions |
| edited by Rob Hansen | 1965: The Second UK Worldcon | Aug 2023 | On Loncon II |
| edited by Rob Hansen | Generation Femizine | September 2023 | Women of UK fandom in the 1950s Femizine era |
| Walt Willis | The Harp Remembered | November 2023 | Compiled and ed. by Dave Langford: early writing, autobiography, miscellaneous articles, uncollected columns |
| edited by Rob Hansen | Beyond Fandom: Fans, Culture & Politics in the 20th Century | November 2023 | Selected fans' (31 chapters, some on several) impact on the mundane world |
| Various | New Worlds Profiles 1953 to 1963 | May 2024 | Compiled and ed. by Dave Langford: all the author, editor etc profile pieces from John Carnell era New Worlds |
| edited by Rob Hansen | British SF Conventions Volume 2: 1952–1957 | July 2024 | On UK early "Eastercons" and others |
| David Langford | Work for Hire | October 2024 | Essays for older genre reference works |
| John Nielsen-Hall | Motorway Dreams | forthcoming December 2024 | Memorial collection of his fanwriting |
| edited by Rob Hansen | British SF Conventions Volume 4: 1958–1965 | forthcoming 2025 | On UK early "Eastercons" and others |
- https://ae.ansible.uk – Ansible Editions homepage, with news
- Free ebooks at the TAFF site.
- "TAFF Benefit Paperbacks"
- Ansible Editions PoD paperbacks at Lulu.com
| Publisher | Website | 2003— |
| This is a publisher page, referring to science fiction book and prozine publishers. |
