William Lawrence Hamling was a Chicago-based publisher active from the 1950s into the 1970s.
Hamling began as an author. His
Shadow of the Sphinx is a horror novel about an ancient
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
ian sorceress. First published during the 1940s in
Fantastic AdventuresFantastic Adventures was a fantasy and science fiction magazine published in the United States from 1939 to 1953. The pulp magazine began as a companion publication to Amazing Stories, but following its demise, was absorbed by Fantastic magazine in 1954.- History :The magazine was founded by editor...
, it was described by
Lin CarterLinwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin.-Life:Carter was born in St Petersburg, Florida...
as "the best story of its kind I read in many a moon. The character of Zaleikka was done to perfection. This is the type of yarn we have all too few of nowadays."
After work as an editor at Ziff-Davis, Hamling started his company, Greenleaf Publishing (which was at different times known as Greenleaf Classics, Reed Enterprises, Corinth Publications, Blake Pharmaceuticals, Phenix Publishing and Freedom Publishing) in the early 1950s with
ImaginationImagination was an American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in October 1950 by Raymond Palmer's Clark Publishing Company. The magazine was sold almost immediately to Greenleaf Publishing Company, owned by William Hamling, who published and edited it from the third issue,...
.
William Lawrence Hamling was a Chicago-based publisher active from the 1950s into the 1970s.
Hamling began as an author. His
Shadow of the Sphinx is a horror novel about an ancient
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
ian sorceress. First published during the 1940s in
Fantastic AdventuresFantastic Adventures was a fantasy and science fiction magazine published in the United States from 1939 to 1953. The pulp magazine began as a companion publication to Amazing Stories, but following its demise, was absorbed by Fantastic magazine in 1954.- History :The magazine was founded by editor...
, it was described by
Lin CarterLinwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin.-Life:Carter was born in St Petersburg, Florida...
as "the best story of its kind I read in many a moon. The character of Zaleikka was done to perfection. This is the type of yarn we have all too few of nowadays."
After work as an editor at Ziff-Davis, Hamling started his company, Greenleaf Publishing (which was at different times known as Greenleaf Classics, Reed Enterprises, Corinth Publications, Blake Pharmaceuticals, Phenix Publishing and Freedom Publishing) in the early 1950s with
ImaginationImagination was an American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in October 1950 by Raymond Palmer's Clark Publishing Company. The magazine was sold almost immediately to Greenleaf Publishing Company, owned by William Hamling, who published and edited it from the third issue,...
. His wife,
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
author Frances Deegan Yerxa Hamling, worked closely with him in the early years of his publishing company.
In the late 1950s, he began
RogueThis article is about a magazine, for other uses of the term see Rogue.Rogue was a Chicago-based men's magazine published by William Hamling from December 1955 until 1967. Founding editor Frank M...
, and in 1959, he launched Nightstand Books, an imprint for paperback original sex novels by authors working under
house namesA pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
. (Later imprints included Leisure Books, Ember Library, Midnight Readers, and others). From 1961 on his primary editor was
Earl KempEarl Kemp is an American science fiction editor, critic, and fan who won a Hugo Award for Best Fanzine in 1961 for Who Killed Science Fiction, a collection of questions and answers with top writers in the field...
. Pseudonymous writers for Kemp/Hamling included
Lawrence BlockLawrence Block is an acclaimed contemporary American crime writer best known for two long-running New York-set series, about the recovering alcoholic P.I. Matthew Scudder and gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, respectively...
,
Marion Zimmer BradleyMarion Eleanor Zimmer Bradley was an American author of fantasy novels such as The Mists of Avalon and the Darkover series, often with a feminist outlook. Her first child, David R...
,
Harlan EllisonHarlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. He has written in many genres, but principally science fiction.His published works include over 1000 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, and a wide range of criticism covering not only literature, but film, television, and print media...
,
Evan HunterEvan Hunter was a prolific American author and screenwriter. Born Salvatore Albert Lombino, he legally adopted the name Evan Hunter in 1952...
,
Robert SilverbergRobert Silverberg is an American author, best known for writing science fiction. He is a multiple winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.-Life and work:...
, and
Donald E. WestlakeDonald Edwin Westlake was an American writer, with over a hundred novels and non-fiction books to his credit. He specialized in crime fiction, especially comic capers with an occasional foray into science fiction...
.
Hamling helped finance the defense of bookstore clerk Robert Redrup. His appeal of his conviction on
obscenityObscenity , is a term that is most often used in a legal context to describe expressions that offend the prevalent sexual morality of the time...
charges for selling two Greenleaf Books (
Lust Pool and
Shame Agent) in 1965 went to the
Supreme Court of the United StatesThe Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States, and leads the federal judiciary. It consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justices, who are nominated by the President and confirmed with the "advice and consent" of the Senate...
, where it was overturned in
Redrup v. New YorkRedrup v. New York, was a May 8, 1967 ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States, widely regarded as the end of American censorship of written fiction. Robert Redrup was a Times Square newsstand clerk who sold two of William Hamling's Greenleaf Classics paperback pulp sex novels, Lust Pool...
in 1967.
During the Nixon Administration, Hamling published an illustrated edition of the
Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography. The book was "replete with the sort of photographs the commission examined." Hamling and editor Kemp were hit with a one-year prison sentence for distributing the book (it has been suggested that this prosecution was in part retaliation for Hamling and Kemp's part in
Redrup v. New York) , but served only the federal minimum of three months and one day. The story of their arrest and prison time was covered in
Gay TaleseGay Talese is an American author. He wrote for The New York Times in the early 1960s and helped to define literary journalism or "new nonfiction reportage", also known as New Journalism...
's
Thy Neighbor's WifeThy Neighbor's Wife is a non-fiction book by Gay Talese, published in 1981.An exploration of early-1950s sexuality in America, with notable discussion of the free love subculture, it provides an interesting snapshot of liberated pre-AIDS sexual morality. In preparation for writing the book, Talese...
.
Hamling published
gayThe term gay was originally used, until well into the mid-20th century, primarily to refer to feelings of being "carefree", "happy", or "bright and showy"; it had also come to acquire some connotations of "immorality" as early as 1637....
-themed books while at Greenleaf, one of the earliest publishers to do so.. Novelist
Victor J. BanisVictor J. Banis is an American author, often associated with the first wave of west coast gay writing. For his contributions he has been called "the godfather of modern popular gay fiction." He is openly gay.-Life:...
, one of Hamling's authors, says that once Greenleaf proved how much of a market there was for erotic gay fiction, other publishers soon joined in.
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