Kevin Wasden

 I wish I could say I knew Jim Baen well. Unfortunately, my one-on-one history with him spanned a brief few months from the time I began illustrating for Jim Baen’s Universe until his untimely passing.
The emails were written while Jim handled some of the early art direction for Jim Baen’s Universe.

What I can glean from those emails is that Jim seemed to live in a constant state of disorganization, but, like matter floating in space, perhaps this disorganization is the stuff from which stars (and good ideas) are made. Perhaps the most telling thing about Jim’s emails is that he never capitalized his own name and he never signed off as “Jim Baen.”. He just wrote, “jim.” My name was capitalized, so I know his shift key worked. As far as I was concerned, he was a legend. He could have fittingly signed his emails “JIM BAEN!” Yet, a simple “jim” was his preference. That seems to say a lot about the man.

They say Jim didn’t believe in life after death, but I do, and perhaps someday I can sit down and thank him for giving a relatively unknown artist like me the chance to illustrate for Universe.