Compact Books was an imprint of Roberts and Vinter (London), publishers of New Worlds

New Worlds (magazine)

New Worlds was a British science fiction magazine which was first published professionally in 1946. For 25 years it was widely considered the leading science fiction magazine in Britain, publishing 201 issues up to 1971...

magazine. They published detective novels

Detective fiction

Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...

 by authors Hank Janson and Hilary Brand (both house names) and a science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 list edited by Michael Moorcock

Michael Moorcock

Michael John Moorcock is an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published a number of literary novels....

.

History

They published mostly United Kingdom science fiction writers like John Brunner

John Brunner (novelist)

John Kilian Houston Brunner was a prolific British author of science fiction novels and stories. His 1968 novel Stand on Zanzibar, about an overpopulated world, won the 1968 Hugo Award for best science fiction novel. It also won the BSFA award the same year...

, Dan Morgan, Kenneth Bulmer

Kenneth Bulmer

Henry Kenneth Bulmer was a British author, primarily of science fiction.-Life:Born in London, he married Pamela Buckmaster on 7 March 1953. They had one son and two daughters, and were divorced in 1981...

 and Moorcock himself, together with US writers such as L. Sprague de Camp

L. Sprague de Camp

Lyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction and fantasy books, non-fiction and biography. In a writing career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and notable works of non-fiction, including biographies of other important fantasy authors...

, Thomas M. Disch

Thomas M. Disch

Thomas Michael Disch was an American science fiction author and poet. He won the Hugo Award for Best Related Book – previously called "Best Non-Fiction Book" – in 1999, and he had two other Hugo nominations and nine Nebula Award nominations to his credit, plus one win of the John W...

, Charles Harness and Judith Merril

Judith Merril

Judith Josephine Grossman , who took the pen-name Judith Merril about 1945, was an American and then Canadian science fiction writer, editor and political activist....

, many for the first time. They lasted barely two years (1965 to 1966). The imprint ended suddenly with the collapse of Roberts and Vinter's distributor Thorpe and Porter, which also ended their publication of New Worlds. All science fiction titles had covers by novelist Keith Roberts

Keith Roberts

Keith John Kingston Roberts , was an English science fiction author. He began publishing with two stories in the September 1964 issue of Science Fantasy magazine, "Anita" and "Escapism.Several of his early stories were written using the pseudonym...

, then the art editor of Compact, as well as deputy editor (essentially the real editor) of the New Worlds companion Science Fantasy/Impulse.

Compact published Moorcock's pseudonymous novels: his Martian sword-and-planet trilogy under the pseudonym Edward P. Bradbury; his Nick Allard comedy thrillers (as Bill Barclay); and a short story collection

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 as James Colvin. The science fiction titles published were a mix between some lesser-known Golden Age

Golden Age of Science Fiction

The first Golden Age of Science Fiction — often recognized as the period from the late 1930s through the 1950s — was an era during which the science fiction genre gained wide public attention and many classic science fiction stories were published...

 science fiction and New Wave

New Wave (science fiction)

New Wave is a term applied to science fiction produced in the 1960s and 1970s and characterized by a high degree of experimentation, both in form and in content, a "literary" or artistic sensibility, and a focus on "soft" as opposed to hard science. The term "New Wave" is borrowed from the French...

authors.