Byron C. Preiss
Byron Preiss, photographed in 2000
Born	(1953-04-11)April 11, 1953 Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
Died	July 9, 2005(2005-07-09) (aged 52) East Hampton, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Writer, editor, publisher
Alma mater	University of Pennsylvania Stanford University
Genre	Fantasy, illustrated novels,audiobooks, digital publishing
Notable works	The Words of Gandhi Dragonworld The Secret: A Treasure Hunt
Notable awards	Inkpot Award (1977)[1]
Spouse	Sandi Mendelson

Byron Preiss (April 11, 1953 – July 9, 2005)^[2] was an American writer, editor, and publisher. He founded and served as president ofByron Preiss Visual Publications, and later ofibooks Inc. Many of his projects were in the forms ofgraphic novels,comics,illustrated books, andchildren's books. Beyond traditional printed books, Preiss frequently embraced emerging technologies, and was recognized as a pioneer in digital publishing and as among the first to publish in such formats asCD-ROM books andebooks.^[3]

A native ofBrooklyn, New York City, Byron Preiss graduatedmagna cum laude from theUniversity of Pennsylvania in 1972,^[3] and earned a master's degree in communications fromStanford University.^[3]

In 1971, while Preiss was teaching at aPhiladelphia elementary school, he conceived, and withJim Steranko, produced an anti-drug comic book,The Block, designed for low-level reading skills. Published by Steranko's company, Supergraphics, it was distributed to schools nationwide.^[4]

He founded Byron Preiss Visual Publications in 1974^{[citation needed]} to publish original works, includingWeird Heroes (1975). His 1976Fiction Illustrated series ofillustrated novels began withSchlomo Raven: Public Detective, a Preiss collaboration withTom Sutton; followed byStarfawn, illustrated byStephen Fabian; Steranko'sChandler: Red Tide; and the 1977Son of Sherlock Holmes, illustrated byRalph Reese. Other publications included a 1978 adaptation ofAlfred Bester'sThe Stars My Destination as a two-volumegraphic novel, illustrated byHoward Chaykin.

As acomics packager andbook packager, he developed titles for such publishers asHarperCollins andRandom House. One such project, created in conjunction with theBank Street College of Education, resulted in a series of educational comic books adapting well-known genre authors:The Bank Street Book of Creepy Tales,The Bank Street Book of Fantasy,The Bank Street Book of Mystery andThe Bank Street Book of Science Fiction.^[5]

He publishedchildren's books by celebrities, includingBilly Crystal,Jane Goodall,Jay Leno,LeAnn Rimes andJerry Seinfeld, and worked closely with such established illustrators as Ralph Reese,William Stout andTom Sutton.^{[citation needed]}

Preiss was co-author, withMichael Reaves, of thechildren's novelDragonworld (Doubleday, 1979), with 80 illustrations by Joseph Zucker.Dragonworld was originally planned to be the fifthFiction Illustrated title.^{[citation needed]}

In 1982, Preiss publishedThe Secret, a puzzle book that combined 12 short verses and 12 elaborate fantasy paintings byJohn Jude Palencar. Readers were expected to pair each painting with a verse in a way that would provide clues to finding one of 12 plexiglass boxes buried in various parks around North America. Each box contained a ceramic box that contained a key that could be redeemed for a jewel worth $1,000. The book was inspired by the success ofMasquerade, written and illustrated by Kit Williams and published in England in August 1979, butThe Secret never led to the same level of treasure hunting frenzy. One of the ceramic boxes was found in Chicago in 1983, one in Cleveland in 2004, and one in Boston in October 2019.^[6] The remaining nine boxes have yet to be found,^[7] and reportedly Preiss was the only one who knew where they were when he died.^[6]

He edited the recording of theaudiobookThe Words of Gandhi, released byCaedmon in 1984 and narrated byBen Kingsley,^[8] who won aGrammy Award in the category ofBest Spoken Word or Non-Musical Recording for the work.^[9]

Preiss was married to Sandi Mendelson, with whom he had daughters Karah and Blaire.^[10]

On July 9, 2005, he died in atraffic accident atEast Hampton, New York, onLong Island:^[3] Preiss, turning left at an intersection ontoMontauk Highway, was involved in a collision with aHampton Jitney bus traveling at or around 30 mph (48,3 km/h). Theairbag did not work. Preiss died almost instantly.^[11]

Both Byron Preiss Visual Publications and ibooks Inc. filed forChapter 7 Bankruptcy on February 22, 2006, after his death.^[12]

Published by Preiss, or packaged by Preiss for other publishers

• The Electric Company Joke Book (1973)ISBN 0-307-64824-9
• The Silent e's from Outer Space (Western Pub., 1973; Goldencraft, 1974ISBN 0-307-64821-4)
• One Year Affair (1976)ISBN 0-911104-86-0
• Weird Heroes (Pyramid Books, 1975–77)

Vol. 1 (ISBN 0-515-03746-X) to Vol. 8 (ISBN 0-515-04257-9); collections of illustrated, pulp-inspired stories

• Fiction Illustrated #1 – Schlomo Raven: Public Detective (Pyramid Books, 1976; by Preiss andTom Sutton)
• Fiction Illustrated #2 – Starfawn (Pyramid Books, 1976; by Preiss and Stephen Fabian)
• Fiction Illustrated #3 –Chandler: Red Tide (Pyramid Books, 1976ISBN 0-515-04241-2; Dark Horse, 2001ISBN 1-56971-438-X)
• Fiction Illustrated #4 – Son of Sherlock Holmes (Pyramid Books, 1977; by Preiss andRalph Reese)
• Empire (Berkley Windhover and Byron Preiss Visual Publications, 1978) bySamuel R. Delany, illustrated byHoward Chaykin.ISBN 0-425-03900-5
• More Than Human (HM Communications &Simon & Schuster, 1979) – adaptation of theTheodore Sturgeon novel of the same name, byDoug Moench andAlex Niño
• The IllustratedRoger Zelazny (Ace Books, 1979), illustrated byGray MorrowISBN 978-0441365258
• The Beach Boys (1979; revised ed. 1983ISBN 0-312-07026-8)
• The Art of Leo and Diane Dillon (1981)ISBN 0-345-28449-6
• The Dinosaurs (1981; revised 2000 asThe New Dinosaurs)
• The Secret (1982)ISBN 0-553-01408-0 – illustrated byJohn Jude Palencar
• The First Crazy Word Book: Verbs (1982)ISBN 0-531-04500-5
• The Little Blue Brontosaurus (1983)ISBN 0-89845-165-5
• Not the Webster's Dictionary (1983)ISBN 0-671-47418-9
• Be an Interplanetary Spy (Bantam Books, 1983–1985) — series of twelve interactive children's science fiction books, illustrated byMarc Hempel,Mark Wheatley,Tom Sutton,Alex Niño,Dennis Francis, and others
• The Bat Family (1984)ISBN 0-89845-237-6
• Time Machine — series of twenty-five historical children's interactive books; illustrators includeJim Steranko
• Nuts! (1985)ISBN 0-553-24725-5
• The Planets (1985)ISBN 0-553-05109-1
• The Universe (1987)ISBN 0-553-05227-6
• Dragonsword, 1st edition (1988)ISBN 1-55802-003-9
• The Microverse (1989)ISBN 0-553-05705-7
• First Contact: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (1990)ISBN 0-7472-3508-2
• Tales from the One-Eyed Crow: The Vulgmaster by Dennis L. McKiernan and Alex Nino (1991)ISBN 9780451450883
• The Ultimate Dracula (1991)ISBN 0-7472-0552-3
• The Ultimate Frankenstein (1991)ISBN 0-440-50352-3
• The Ultimate Werewolf (1991 reissueISBN 0-440-50354-X)
• The Ultimate Dinosaur: Past, Present, and Future (1992)ISBN 0-553-07676-0
• The Vampire State Building (1992)ISBN 0-553-15998-4
• The Ultimate Zombie (1993)ISBN 0-440-50534-8
• The Ultimate Witch (1993)ISBN 0-440-50531-3
• The Ultimate Dragon (1995)ISBN 0-440-50630-1
• The Ultimate Alien (1995)ISBN 0-440-50631-X
• The Best Children's Books in the World (1996)ISBN 0-8109-1246-5
• Nine Princes in Amber, originally byRoger Zelazny, adapted byTerry Bisson and drawn by Lou Harrison, Bryn Barnard, and Tom Roberts (3 issues, 1996, DC Comics)^[13]
• The Guns of Avalon, originally by Roger Zelazny, adapted by Terry Bisson and drawn by Christopher Schenck andAndrew Pepoy (3 issues, 1996, DC Comics)^[14]
• The Rhino History of Rock 'n' Roll: The '70s (1997)ISBN 0-671-01175-8
• Are We Alone in the Cosmos? The Search for Alien Contact in the New Millennium (1999)ISBN 0-671-03892-3
• The New Dinosaurs (2000)ISBN 0-7434-0724-5
• The Roadkill of Middle Earth (2001) by John Carnell, illustrated by Tom Sutton, cover by Steve Fastner and Rich Larson.ISBN 0-7434-3467-6
• Battlestar Galactica: Resurrection (2001) by Richard Hatch and Stan Timmons; ibooks.ISBN 0-7434-1326-1
• Dying Inside (2002)ISBN 0-7434-3508-7
• The Ultimate Dragon (2003)ISBN 0-7434-5868-0
• The Best Bizarre But True Stories Ever! (2003)ISBN 978-0-7434-4557-3
• Exploring The Matrix: Visions of the Cyber Present (2004)ISBN 0-312-31359-4
• Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe (2005)ISBN 1-59687-847-9
• Year's Best Graphic Novels, Comics & Manga (2005)ISBN 0-312-34326-4

Dragonworld, the illustrated children's novel by Byron Preiss andMichael Reaves, was published in several editions from 1979 to 2005:

• Doubleday hardcover, 1979
• Bantam / Dellpaperback, (1979)ISBN 0-553-01077-8
• Spectra paperback (July 1983)ISBN 0-553-25857-5
• Bantam / Dell paperback (Aug. 1983)ISBN 0-553-23426-9
• ibooks, Inc. paperback (2000)ISBN 0-671-03907-5
• ibooks, Inc.ebook (Microsoft Reader; 2001)
• ibooks, Inc. paperback (2002)ISBN 0-7434-5253-4
• ibooks, Inc. paperback (2005)ISBN 1-59687-233-0

• Williams, Paul (February 2021)."The Strange Case of Byron Preiss Visual Publications".Journal of American Studies. Vol. 55, no. 1. pp. 102–129.

• Frauenfelder, Mark (November 1993)."The Way of Comics".Wired.Archived from the original on May 20, 2014.
• Zeitchik, Steven (July 15, 2005)."Byron Preiss: 'He Saw Books Where Other People Didn't'".Publishers Weekly. Vol. 252, no. 29. Archived fromthe original on October 1, 2012.
• Fantastic Fiction: Byron Preiss
• Byron Preiss at theInternet Speculative Fiction Database
• "Preiss, Byron" at theMichigan State University Libraries Special Collections Division: Reading Room Index to the Comic Art Collection, "Prehistoric Adventure Comics" to "Pre-Raphaelites"
• Byron Preiss atLibrary of Congress, with 40 library catalog records (previous page of browse report as 'Preiss, Byron' without ', 1953–2005')

• 1953 births
• 2005 deaths
• American publishers (people)
• Book packagers
• Inkpot Award winners
• American speculative fiction editors
• Road incident deaths in New York (state)
• American science fiction editors
• University of Pennsylvania alumni

• Pages using worldCat with unknown parameters
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from July 2014
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from June 2010