The Newcastle Publishing Company was a

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

-based small trade paperback

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

founded by bookstore owner

Al Saunders Alan Keith Saunders (born February 1, 1947) is an American football coach who most recently served as the senior offensive assistant for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). Personal life Saunders was born in the north Lo ...

,Tessina, Tina B. Letter, in ''Holt Uncensored'' #180, 8/29/00
/ref> active from July 1971 through October 1992, under the editorial direction of

Robert Reginald The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

and Douglas Menville, formerly the editors of the

speculative fiction Speculative fiction is a term that has been used with a variety of (sometimes contradictory) meanings. The broadest interpretation is as a category of fiction encompassing genres with elements that do not exist in reality, recorded history, na ...

magazine ''

Forgotten Fantasy ''Forgotten Fantasy: Classics of Science Fiction and Fantasy'' was a short-lived American fantasy and science fiction magazine published by Nectar Press. The headquarters is in Hollywood, California. Douglas Menville served as editor, and Robert ...

''.Bibliography of Robert Reginald
/ref> Saunders died in 1997, and Newcastle was later acquired by

Career Press Red Wheel?Weiser, also known in different periods in its history as RedWheel/Weiser/Conari and Samuel Weiser, Inc., is a book publisher with three imprints: Red Wheel, Weiser Books and Conari Books. It is America's second-largest publisher of ...

. The company originally reprinted out-of-print

metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

books that had reverted to the public domain, quickly branching out into fiction and, in 1980, original works. It continued to specialize primarily in

New Age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consi ...

and other fringe materials, including

psychic powers This is a list of alleged psychic abilities that have been attributed to real-world people. Many of these abilities pertain to variations of extrasensory perception or the ''sixth sense''. Superhuman abilities from fiction are not included. Psyc ...

fortune-telling Fortune telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. Melton, J. Gordon. (2008). ''The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena''. Visible Ink Press. pp. 115-116. The scope of fortune telling is in principle identical wi ...

tarot reading Tarot card reading is a form of cartomancy whereby practitioners use tarot cards to purportedly gain insight into the past, present or future. They formulate a question, then draw cards to interpret them for this end. A traditional tarot deck con ...

, numerology, and

handwriting analysis Graphology is the analysis of handwriting with attempt to determine someone's personality traits. No scientific evidence exists to support graphology, and it is generally considered a pseudoscience or scientifically questionable practice. Howe ...

. It also published self-help books. In fiction Newcastle is best remembered for its ''

Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library The Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library was a series of trade paperback books published in the United States by the Newcastle Publishing Company between 1973 and 1980. Presumably under the inspiration of the earlier example set by the Ballantine A ...

'', which reissued two dozen neglected classics of

fantasy literature Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Magic, the supernatural and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds. Fan ...

between 1973 and 1980, including works by

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

, H. Rider Haggard, Lord Dunsany, and

Leslie Barringer Leslie Barringer (1895–1968) was an English editor and author of historical novels and historical fantasy novels, best known for the latter. Life Barringer was a Quaker, born in Yorkshire, England. He served in an ambulance unit during World W ...

, among other authors. In all, Newcastle published 178 books,. The firm was successively headquartered in Hollywood and

North Hollywood North Hollywood is a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, located in the San Fernando Valley. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, the El Portal Theatre, several art galleries, and the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences. The North ...

; some of its offerings also specify Tarzana and Van Nuys as places of publication.

Notes

Defunct book publishing companies of the United States Publishing companies established in 1971 {{US-publish-company-stub