I don’t know if it’s in the sphere of interest of many of my readers, but publisher Jim Baen passed last night. He suffered a stroke about a week ago on the 12th, and had been in a coma ever since.

Founder of Baen Books, he felt that science fiction could and should be uplifting, that the good guys can win, the military isn’t evil, and sex isn’t necessary to sell books (although he began allowing it in some later novels). Almost all of the biggest writers in military sci-fi write for him, a fact that tended to send the adherents of more dystopian futures into a frenzy. “Space Opera” was a term they often used, but Baen didn’t care.

He brought the same approach to the business of publishing, making the books he published available for download entirely unencrptyed. While major publishing companies were loading their wares down with DRM, Baen released simple text files readable on almost any device, doing many times their business. Many complete novels are available online, entirely unencrypted and with his (and the authors’) blessing. Baen was well known for shepherding new talent along, and his latest project was to revive the dying short story format through electronic publishing — again, entirely unencrypted. Ironically, the premeir issue, out this month, contained an essay titled “Why Die?” Sadly, it now also contains a eulogy by David Drake.

He was a good man, a great publisher, and will be sorely missed.