NEW YORK — Oscar Dystel, a leader of the paperbacks market who transformed Bantam Books into a prolific powerhouse that released best-selling editions of “Jaws,” Ragtime” and many others, died Wednesday at age 101.

Millions of people who loved to find quick reads for the airport or beach could thank Dystel, who had been a magazine editor when he was hired in 1954 to take over the then-struggling Bantam imprint. Alert to the growing appeal of cheap and portable books, Dystel soon presided over popular paperbacks of Leon Uris’ “Battle Cry” and John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” and made Bantam the dominant publisher.