The world of short stories lost one of its best supporters and promoters with the death of Martin H.(Harry) Greenberg last week. Although he started out as a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, he also founded book packager Tekno Books, which has published over 2,300 books translated into 33 languages. But he may best known to many as the "king of anthologists," editing singly or with others over 1,000 anthologies—I'm not sure anyone really knows how many he's hand a hand in. Greenberg received four genre Lifetime Achievement Awards: the Milford Award in science fiction, the Solstice award in science fiction, the Bram Stoker award in horror, and the Ellery Queen award in mystery.
His collaborators were (and are) among the bright lights in their respective genres, such as science fiction author Isaac Asimov, with whom Greenberg edited more than 120 anthologies, and crime fiction authors Ed Gorman and Bill Pronzini, among many others. Several of his colleagues and friends have posted heartfelt tributes and recollections you can read, including Ed Gorman and Dean Wesley Smith. As an example of his wide-ranging thematic material, I picked out two quite different anthologies from my local library, Murder in Japan: Japanese Stories of Crime and Detection, and Danger in D.C.: Cat Crimes in the Nation's Capital.
Danger in D.C. is one of at least seven in a series of "cat crimes" story anthologies Greenberg edited with Ed Gorman from 1991 to 1998. As you might guess from the title, the volume features 18 stories with felines connected to the nation's capitol in some way, with offerings by Jon L. Breen, Max Allan Collins, Bill Crider, Barbara D'Amato, Carole Nelson Douglas, John Lutz, Barbara Paul and Carolyn Wheat and more. Since the book dates from the Clinton presidential years, many of the stories feature the "first cat" Sox or a standin-in, including "Code Red: Terror on the Mall" by Bill Crider, involving a terrorist plot to blow up the President's cat and the Washington Monument.
Murder in Japan is co-edited with John L. Apostolou and includes 14 stories arranged chronologically from pre-1920s up to the 1980s. Although crime fiction has been quite popular in Japan for some time, few short stories have been translated into English, and I can almost guarantee that you (nor I) have heard of most of the authors included here, beginning with two stories by Edogawa Rampo, credited as being the father of the Japanese mystery story and influenced heavily by Edgar Allan Poe. There are also two stories by Shizuko Natsuki, sometimes referred to as the "Agatha Christie of Japan," (whose 1983 novel Murder at Mt. Fuji sold over a million copies) with her tales frequently based on actual cases.
If you want to delve into the many treasures Greenberg left behind as part of his legacy, check out the partial biblioraphies listed on the Books 'n Bytes and Fantastic Fiction web sites. To put his impact into perspective, if you read one story from one of his anthologies per day (using a 1,000 anthology total with an average 14 stories each), it would take you 38 years to read them all—without taking a day off. Happy reading!
Martin Greenberg collected thousands of stories that would have been forgotten in old pulp magazines. Sadly, the contemporary publishing scene shows little interest in these kinds of projects.
Posted by: George Kelley | July 08, 2011 at 09:41 AM
I have no idea why Rampo is continually referred to as the Edgar Allan Poe of Japan. He selected a pen name that sound like Poe's name, true. But his stories are perverse psychosexual tales that foreshadow splatterpunk and contemporary serial killer novels. He claims to be influenced by Poe but what I've read shows more of an influence from a mix of Victorian fetish pornography and the material horror stories of James and Blackwood.
Posted by: J F Norris | July 08, 2011 at 10:00 AM
Poe has some consanguity/paternity there, too, though, John.
Greenberg made a systematic industry of anthologies, and usually worked with someone who would do more of the Choosing, while he and his eventual staff would do more of the scut work of assembly (seeking permissions, etc.), but it's still an impressive achievement...and most of his anthos were longer tha 14 entries, to be sure!
Posted by: Todd Mason | July 08, 2011 at 12:56 PM
Yes, George, I'm not sure there are many folks left with the same passionate support for short pulp fiction and other forms of genre short stories. Ed Gorman and others like him do some great work, and we can be grateful for these hard-working folks, too.
Posted by: BV Lawson | July 08, 2011 at 01:31 PM
I think that Rampo is referred to as the Japanese E.A. Poe because Rampo himself carefully cultivated that image; in fact, his pseudonym Edogawa Rampo, was created in honor of Poe (as close an anagram as he could make), and he always claimed Poe as his major influence. Of course, one can claim to be anything, but readers' interpretation of the results may differ...
Posted by: BV Lawson | July 08, 2011 at 01:33 PM
I think Greenberg's influence may be his tireless work ethic and ability to get a lot of people together on a project and make it happen, even if he didn't do the lion's share of the work all the time. He was able to work with (corral?) a wide variety of people, including many bestselling authors, and that's quite a feat, too.
Posted by: BV Lawson | July 08, 2011 at 01:36 PM
Interesting and intriguing post. I occasionally like to read an anthology but usually just of one particular author's stories.
I don't think I've ever read one based on subject matter. It's time for me to branch out.
Posted by: Yvette | July 08, 2011 at 03:05 PM
One of the best things about an anthology of different authors, Yvette, is being able to get a taste of various writing styles. Plus, it's a great way to "try out" new authors and then seek out their longer works. Kind of like going to the amusement park and sampling the different rides and amusements...
Posted by: BV Lawson | July 08, 2011 at 03:33 PM
Yvette's admission is very foreign to me!
I suspect it isn't so very rare, sadly.
These days, too many people have no clear idea what "pulp" means. "Anything trashy and kewl, no?" No. And, if anything, support for "genre" short fiction is greater than that for ?theoretically genre-free short fiction...(no fiction escapes genre)...even the O. HENRY annual is in constant danger of cancellation, much less less-established fora.
Posted by: Todd Mason | July 08, 2011 at 03:48 PM
People, and particularly publishers, would turn to Greenberg as a specialist in the behind-the-scenes work on anthos.
Posted by: Todd Mason | July 08, 2011 at 03:49 PM
Probably due to the movie "Pulp Fiction" in a way, Todd. Although there are several publishers and online blogs/sites that are devoted to and/or resurrection traditional pulp traditions from the early 20th century that are good to see.
Posted by: BV Lawson | July 08, 2011 at 04:13 PM