Best (or worst?) publisher of vintage Gothics?

[little*deitsch*girl]

I have a modest collection of old 1960s and 70s gothic paperbacks and I recently noticed that the majority of the ones I like best were published by Fawcett Crest. It helps when looking at unfamiliar authors to know that if the book was published by Fawcett, it's worth taking a closer look. Their editors seem to have had comparatively high standards in choosing material.

Can anyone else suggest any publishers to seek out or avoid?

[AliceChell]

Hello and welcome, little "deitsch" girl. (I had to look back and check that spelling!)
It's nice to "see" some new faces.
I, too, have many Fawcett Crest gothics that have been favorites over the years. I agree that their standard of quality is high.
I also own ones that I like from these publishers: Paperback Library, Pyramid, Dell, Ace, Beagle, Harper Paperbacks and Popular Library. In hardback, I have a number of romantic suspense/gothics from Doubleday and Simon and Schuster.
There are also some which I value published in Great Britain. Two of these are Susan Howatch's The Shrouded Walls by Pan Books, and Castle Malindine by Hilary Ford, published by Hamish Hamilton, Ltd.
Thanks to you, little "deitsch" girl, I now have stacks of gothics surrounding me which I have to put away!!

[bronte]

Not sure which publisher is best. But I have discovered something about publication dates. In my opinion the gothic novel went "down hill" after 1975. Ones that were published before 1975 are much better than after 1975. This is of course my own opinion.

[RareMale]

I think Ace was known for paying the least per word to the authors, and quality suffered accordingly. Not all Ace titles are bad. Quite a few are the first novels from a then-unknown who later became famous. They also reprinted a lot of British mystery novels with Gothic cover art and new titles.