GREENBERG
Martin H. Greenberg edited or co-edited 1,298 anthologies across multiple genres, the first published in 1974. Between then and his death in 2011, he produced an average of 35 anthologies per year or one anthology every 1.45 weeks.
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| Releases November 8, 2024. |
Greenberg didn’t produce all these anthologies alone. He often had co-editors, including such luminaries as Isaac Asimov and Ed Gorman. Along the way, he founded Tekno Books, a book packager that also produced novels. Denise Dietz, John Helfers, and Denise Little were, at various times, part of the Tekno Books team. Likely, there were other team members.
Clearly, Greenberg had help.
ELWOOD
Roger Elwood, who passed away in 2007, edited or co-edited at least 67 anthologies (some sources claim he edited as many as 80), the first published in 1964. Working primarily within the science fiction/fantasy genres, he produced 55 anthologies in the six-year period beginning in 1972. In 1974 alone, he produced 23 anthologies, or one every 2.2 weeks. Like Greenberg, Elwood didn’t limit his editing to anthologies. He also edited books and magazines, and he wrote both fiction and non-fiction.
There’s no indication he had staff to assist him.
LEGACY
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| Released October 14, 2024. |
Elwood, on the other hand, seems to have left a bad taste in the science fiction writing community, with rumors of shoddy workmanship, poor treatment of writers, and unhappy publishers.
GOLDEN AGE
In “Is That a New Derringer in Your Pocket?”, Joseph S. Walker’s October 27, 2024, SleuthSayers post, he notes this about anthologies: “I’ve heard more than a few writers suggesting that we’re living in a golden age for the form.”
I suspect this belief comes more from younger and newer writers who didn’t experience the years when anthologies were released at a breakneck pace, when editors such as Greenberg, Elwood, and others were at their peak productivity. On the other hand, as Walker further noted, this belief in an anthology golden age may be more “due to a decline in the number of magazine markets,” which means anthologies now appear to represent a larger share of the available marketplace for fiction.
Either way, anthologies have long been important to the writing community, and writers desiring publication should spend as much time seeking anthology opportunities as magazine opportunities.
But will any of today’s anthology editors have such an outsize impact on the field—good or bad—the way Greenberg and Elwood did?
Only time will tell.
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“Stinkwater Lake” appears in Crimes Against Nature (Down & Out Books), edited by Robert Lopresti, released October 7.
“Barbed Wire Bison” appears in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, November/December.
Scattered, Smothered, Covered & Chunked (Down & Out Books) which I co-edited with Stacy Woodson, released October 14 and includes my story “Windfall.”
Janie’s Got a Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Aerosmith (Misti Media) releases November 8.
Mickey Finn: 21st Century Noir, vol. 5 (Down & Out Books) releases December 2.
I remember the late 60s, early 70s as great anthology years, at least from a reader's point of view, and I still have a few of them, chocked full of great, great, great stories. But I think we're pretty good today, too!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was trying to teach myself how to write short stories back in the 1990s I devoured Greenberg's (and others') anthologies and raided the used bookstores for them. Among my favorites: "Alternate Presidents" and "By Any Other Fame." Years later I would write stories for small press theme anthologies and get stories published in some of them! Again, I absolutely love anthologies!
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