Locus, SFsite, and others are reporting that prolific editor and publisher Martin Harry Greenberg passed away on Saturday, June 25th after a long battle with cancer. He was best known as the editor or co-editor of literally hundreds of anthologies of short fiction, often in collaboration with well-known writers such as Robert Silverberg, Jane Yolen, and Mike Resnick. He famously co-edited over 125 anthologies with Isaac Asimov. He also co-edited a large number of anthologies with scholars such as Charles G. Waugh, Joseph D. Olander, and/or Patricia Warrick. A holder of a doctorate in political science, Greenberg taught at the University of Wisconsin from 1975 until his retirement in 1996. In 2001, he founded book packaging company Tekno Books.
Martin H. Greenberg’s anthologies cast a wide net; they ranged from enjoyable tie-ins built around current hit movies to carefully-constructed teaching volumes designed for the education market. Odds are that you or somone you know owned or read at least one book edited by Greenberg. He will be missed.
I’m in shock. I have so many of his anthologies.
Martin Greenberg bought my first pro story. Sad to hear he is gone.
I’m sad; I never got to meet him. I saw his name on so many of the anthologies I read that, at one time, I wondered whether he was a real person or some kind of house name. I was assured by folks who had met him that he was indeed an actual person, and I had hoped to meet him.
One of the unheralded influences of sci-fi/fantasy. His anthologies covered such a broad spectrum of interests. Rest easy, MHG-the world of literatue is poorer without you here to edit it.
I never had the good fortune to meet Marty, but I know people wh editied anthologies with him or sold work to those anthologies. Marty was a tireless packager with work in other genres as well as SF/Fantasy. He was known in some circles as “The Green Bay Packager”.
One friend who dealt with Marty on the contracts end marvelled at his ability to come up with a salable pitch, and adjust it on the fly in contract meetings to make it more saleable. Mike Resnick commented elsewhere about his first experience editing an anthology with Marty, beginning a relationship that would extend through 19 such collaborations:
http://webnews.sff.net/read?cmd=read&group=sff.discuss.obituaries&artnum=20302
I think Mike summed it up best in another comment:
“Marty was not only my good friend, but for the past third of a century he was the short story’s -best- friend. I am still amazed that he could create and sell over 2,000 anthologies without making a single enemy along the way.”
If anyone had a bad word to say about Marty, I haven’t heard about it.
His loss is a sore blow to the field.
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Dennis