That name might not ring bells with most of you. Peder was the publisher at Paladin Press (which took over my titles when Mike Hoy closed Loompanics and which later published one of my lesser-known books).
He died suddenly on June 3 while vacationing in Finland — which I suppose is a good way to go if you gotta go. But it left his traveling companion (and longtime wife? partner? co-worker) Sheila with the terrible necessity of dealing with both the U.S. and Finnish governments to get his body home. And of course it was a jolt to all the good people at Paladin, who are probably wondering about their futures right now.
I didn’t know Peder well, but he seemed to be a good man and I was certainly glad he didn’t let my books fall out of print when Loompanics went away. I suppose at this point nobody knows what will happen with Paladin. I understand it’s been scaling back for a few years, but I would hate to see one more underground freedomista publisher go away.
Do you think Paladin was under pressure to limit their offerings?
Absolutely, they were.
I don’t think that was the direct reason for any recent scale-backs (though I wasn’t privy to Paladin’s decision-making processes). But pressure has clearly been on all the underground publishers since the Clinton administration, and especially since 9/11. I know both Paladin and Loompanics pulled a lot of titles because of new laws back then against publishing info about weapons, explosives, drug-manufacturing and so on. Paladin dropped something like 70 titles because of that, and because they got clobbered with the Hit Man lawsuit. Loompanics dropped fewer, but the new anti-free-speech laws surely contributed to Mike Hoy’s decision to close the business.
Controversial publishers have definitely been living in fear the last 20 years or so. Then on top of that we’ve had all the changes in the publishing industry …
That’s too bad. My 90s were filled with books from Loompanics and Paladin.
A shame. I’m a fan of Paladin (as I was of Loompanics). I hope they survive this tragedy; like you, I would hate to see another controversial (I prefer that to “underground”!) publisher go out of business.
I have quite a few of their books in my library (including Claire’s), sad news.
Interesting man with an interesting story. Started the company not only to make some bucks but also to stick a finger in the eye of the Left.
Originally partnered with SOF publisher Robert K Brown, Peder and his early employees were actually quite selective of who they sold to, and how much.
If a Weatherman-type loser placed an order, they generally knew.
I wonder if they’ll put the company up for sale.
I bought many books from Paladin Press (starting in the 1970s) when I was in the U.S. Army. I was also around when SOF Magazine first came out and began reading that. I also bought books from Loopanics as well, purchased many controversial titles that were well worth the read, and glad i did now. I bought these books knowing they were not the norm. People would be hounded by the goverment for reading these type of books, especially by the Clinton Administration or really any type of administration.