AustLit

Avalon Books was founded in New York City in 1950 by Thomas Bouregy and Samuel Curl as an imprint of Thomas Bouregy and Co. Bouregy had previously been associated with the Collier Photo Engraving Company, while Curl was then vice-president of Hillman-Curl and owner of Arcadia House and Samuel Curl, Inc. Under the editorship of Lucy Mabry, Avalon initially focused on the romance genre - including gothic, nurse/doctor and adventure stories. Between the early to mid-1950s and 1968 Avalon also published a large list of science fictions titles, with prominent authors being Erik van Lhin, Charles R. Long, Stanton A. Coblentz, L. Sprague de Camp and Donald A. Wollheim (under his pseudonym David Grinnell). Australian science fiction author Bertram A. Chandler also had several of his works published by the company during the early 1960s.

Over the course of its lifetime Avalon Books has published up to 60 titles per year, with romance still being the most popular genre. In 1962 it began to publish reprints of classics under the Airmont imprint. Among the Australian authors to be published by Avalon are Maysie Grieg (aka Jennifer Ames) and Beatrice Warren.