[Ethereal music] - Remember the story that first turned you on to science fiction and perhaps made you a fan for life?
- What Judy-Lynn liked about science fiction was what draws anybody to science fiction, an insatiable curiosity about the world.
[Words of Judy-Lynn]: Science fiction should be fun.
It should offer some of that sense of wonder and achievement.
[Flying saucer whooshing] - Judy-Lynn del Rey is one of the unsung heroes of modern fantasy publishing.
She was both a genius at marketing and also had a really fine, keen editorial eye.
- All of the biggest authors of the day were happy to work with her 'cause she was so good.
[Tender instrumentals] - One in four American adults have a disability, and I'm one of them.
I'm Lachi, I'm a recording artist and disability culture advocate, and I'm here to introduce you to disabled renegades.
♪♪♪ I face each day as a renegade ♪ Our subject today is Judy-Lynn del Rey, a woman with dwarfism who revolutionized the world of sci-fi editing.
[Curious instrumentals] - Between 1977 and 1990, Del Rey Books was so dominant on the science fiction fantasy market that they had 65 different titles reach a bestseller list.
That is more than every other publisher in this country combined.
- We're here at the Philip K. Dick Awards held annually to celebrate amazing science fiction books.
One of her more notable collaborations, the ripples of her legacy live on through events like these.
- A master craftsman, del Rey showed me how to create a character.
- An incredibly intelligent, quick-witted woman burning constantly with a bright radioactive glow.
[Dennis]: She gave Isaac Asimov, one of her very close personal friends, the idea for one of his most famous short stories, The Bicentennial Man, which is about a robot that buys his freedom.
She ended up publishing it in the 1970s, and Bicentennial Man ends up becoming a Hugo and Nebula Award winner, one of Isaac Asimov's best known stories.
- Editors are an interesting bunch.
They are the invisible people in the publishing process, from the reader's point of view.
You've got books on the shelves, what I would look for is author's names.
I wouldn't even pay attention to publishers, let alone editors.
[Ethereal music] [Lachi]: Del Rey was a cosmic architect, shaping stories by providing critical feedback on language, plot, and characters for her authors.
Judy-Lynn del Rey was born in New York City in 1943 when the literary world thought of sci-fi and fantasy as niche genres.
- She got a job working at Galaxy Science Fiction, which was in the '60s, one of the premier science fiction magazines in the country.
She quickly rose through the ranks to become a managing editor.
[Lachi]: But it was when she started her work at the sci-fi fantasy powerhouse, Ballantine Books, that her talents shined.
- She became Vice President of Ballantine Books at the age of 35, and she was basically responsible for the shape and tenure of modern fantasy publishing.
- Judy-Lynn del Rey gave me my start as a published author.
My first three novels, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, she convinced them to publish them all on the same day.
This trilogy from an absolutely unknown writer, entirely unprecedented.
From then on my career skyrocketed.
- You mentioned that Judy-Lynn del Rey was a mastermind marketer.
- For a book, the cover is its main marketing piece.
Judy-Lynn had the absolute touch for matching beautiful artwork that also got across what this kind of book is.
- Somebody brought her this idea of a book based on this movie that was going to come out by George Lucas called Star Wars.
She could tell that this was gonna be big.
- As soon as she saw this artwork, she ran immediately into the main office where Ron Bush, who was the President of Ballantine at the time, and she says, "Ron, Ron, we are going to make millions."
That novelization of Star Wars sold 4.5 million copies in less than five months.
[Shelly]: It was pretty amazing for our publishing program, and it enabled us to keep publishing Star Wars tie-ins for a long time.
[Lachi]: In 1977, she got her own imprint, Del Rey Books.
She became such a powerful force in the business that she quickly earned Del Rey Books the moniker "Death-Rey Books."
- She brought Lester del Rey, her husband, to revitalize the Ballantine science fiction backlist and publishing program.
It was officially Judy-Lynn's imprint.
She was the boss.
[Judy-Lynn]: A lot of science fiction has not been the kind that will capture the imagination of the 12 to 15-year-old.
If we want to grab these young people and make them devoted readers, we have to give them something that is fun to read.
- Can you tell me how you're connected to Judy-Lynn del Rey?
- As a young reader in the '70s and early '80s, she was science fiction.
You could put your hand on a del Rey book and know it was gonna be good.
It is the ultimate.
It is the holy grail of branding.
She had published the first number one New York Times bestseller that was in science fiction, The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey.
- So the first New York Times bestseller was made by a woman publisher.
- Yep.
- And was a woman.
- Yes.
- Boom, boom!
- Boom, boom.
- It was common for me to have meals with Lester and Judy-Lynn.
They had developed a very rich play life, which involved things that you might not expect.
- I would say the biggest quirk of Judy-Lynn and Lester is they had three stuffed bulls called the Papal Bulls.
Every day, the bulls were fed a little bit of food, like real food.
[Telephone ringing] - When Lester and Judy-Lynn were traveling, they always made a point of calling home and talking to the bulls.
I really admire that strength of character that allows you to engage in behaviors that the rest of the world would think were strange, and not be in any way undermined by it.
My social experiences with them were at the World Fantasy Convention.
Judy-Lynn had a way of parting the Red Seas.
She spoke with great confidence and floated with complete self-assurance.
She would walk into the room and then there would be room for her.
- If you go to these conventions, you will talk to people who live and breathe science fiction.
Her and her husband Lester, they were able to take their love for it and make it their entire world, their careers, their life, everything.
[Lachi]: I spent the day here at the Norwescon Convention in Seattle, and I had an amazing time seeing all of the diversity and inclusion throughout the space.
- Science fiction conventions started as a bunch of nerds getting together to throw ourselves the party we wanted to go to.
- It is the most inclusive community I've ever seen in my life.
- I turned my wheelchair into this cyber throne and went out, got to compete in the Western Championships of Cosplay in 2019.
[Emcee]: This army veteran might not have seen combat, but she is using cosplay to battle her PTSD demons.
Ladies and gentlemen, Zamesta Cosplay.
- These are the spaces where we're comfortable, we're around our own people.
[Gentle music] - I never saw any hint that people of varying abilities at these conventions were treated any differently or thought of any differently.
If you think about it, nobody thought of the hobbits as disabled.
They were just different.
- When it comes to characters with dwarfism in sci-fi, or fantasy worlds, they're oftentimes either a sub race of human, they're stereotyped.
I think that that's unfortunate because little people are so creative.
I mean, we spend all of our lives having to adapt to a world that wasn't created to us.
In sci-fi and fantasy universes where it's all about, you know, being adaptive and versatile, it would be cool to see more little people in some of those roles instead of roles that are either sight gags, or the buddy character, or something that's a deviation of something to laugh at.
[Lachi]: In entertainment media, people with disabilities are often exploited through inaccurate, dehumanizing representation.
- I think you could've let me know that everyone in your family's a midget.
- Well, they're not midgets Carol, they're dwarfs.
[Lachi]: Though she didn't live to see it, del Rey's impact sparked a new era in science fiction, paving the way for positive portrayals of diverse characters like Miles Vorkosigan, a protagonist with dwarfism in the Vorkosigan Saga.
- The feedback I've had from disabled fans is that one of the things they like about Miles is that they are not just their issue.
They are a character, and this issue is one of the things that they deal with.
They can relate to that.
They too are whole people who have a disability.
They aren't one note, and neither is Miles.
Disability depends in part on your environment and how well it fits you, whether it is made to fit you or whether it is not made to fit you.
- What does society have to do to shift away from stigma as it pertains to disability and towards more holistic awareness?
[Aubrey]: There has to be a bigger shift culturally to make sure we're constantly educating people and constantly uplifting these voices in the disability community.
If people just take a second to learn a little about little people, we're gonna create such a better pathway forward.
[Ethereal music] [Lachi]: To this day, del Rey's legacy is enshrined at Del Rey Books and beyond as it shapes the landscape of sci-fi and fantasy publishing across the industry.
The stories she helped publish created communities where someone's disability, race, sexuality, gender - all of these can be points of celebration.
These stories offer hope for possible worlds and dare us to imagine.
- Judy-Lynn made it happen for all of us, that we could be mainstream bestsellers, that we weren't niche, that we were available to a larger audience.
And I think that's had downstream effects for all of popular culture.
Many of the bestselling movies are, I think, eight out of ten are science fiction.
All of this, you know, goes back to what Judy-Lynn did.
[Judy-Lynn]: I want stories.
I am looking for characters the readers will not only believe in, but will care about.
If the readers really like the story, we have won.
If our fellow writers and critics also like the story, that's gravy.
But the readers, whoever they may be, must come first.
Till anon, Judy-Lynn, The Galaxy Gal.
- How do you go beyond just designing for a wheelchair or making fashion for a wheelchair and actually celebrating the wheelchair in your design?
- I love that you turned your wheelchair into a throne.
And I love the concept of making something that's seen as a limitation and making it into decadence.
- Have you ladies heard of Judy-Lynn del Rey?
- Yeah, I've been reading Del Rey Books since I was a teenager.
I grew up reading science fiction.
I just love it.
- Yeah, ditto me.
♪♪♪ I live my life ♪ ♪♪♪ My rules, my way ♪ [Clap]
