William Lawrence Hamling (June 14, 1921 – June 29, 2017)Ansible 366, January 2018 was an American writer, science fiction fan, and publisher of both science fiction digests, and adult magazines and books, active from the late 1930s until 1975. He was a lifelong member of First Fandom.
The early years Hamling was born in Chicago, Illinois, on June 14, 1921. His father was a railroad man who worked for the Illinois Central Railroad.
Hamling attended the St. Hilary's grammar school, a parochial school in Chicago, where he received his elementary education and graduated after completing the eighth grade. Four years later, in 1939, he graduated from Lane Technical High School in Chicago, one of the largest schools in the country, with over 9,000 students at that time, where he received both a vocational and general education. Hamling had just turned 18. In 1940, he entered the University of Chicago, but left school less than a year later because he had already begun to write fiction and was selling a great deal of the material that he wrote. He was still living at home, and for a time, to please his father, he had gone to work for the Milwaukee Railroad as a clerk, ostensibly to learn the railroad business. However, he had begun to make writing his life's work and did not stay with the railroad for very long.Affidavit of William L. Hamling in support of Motion for Suspension of Execution of Sentence, and Probation, No. 10791, written by William Hamling and as prepared by the law offices of Stanley Fleishman, October 31, 1974
His first sale as a writer was the science fiction story, "War with Jupiter," a collaboration with fellow Lane Technical High School classmate, Mark Reinsberg. Reinsberg and another friend of Hamling's, and fellow Lane Tech classmate, Melvin Korshak, would go on to found Shasta Publishers.
In 1942, Hamling was drafted into the United States Army as a private but was thereafter sent to a pre-officer candidate school. Later, Hamling was sent to an officer candidate school, graduated, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. The army then sent Hamling to further schooling, where he became a motor maintenance officer, still with the rank of lieutenant. Hamling was scheduled to be attached to the Fourth Division, a division that was later to go into Normandy, but while he was on a combat exercise in the United States, Hamling sustained an accident in the field with a land mine and was later hospitalized with an ear problem. Thereafter, Hamling was retired from service for medical reasons, and he received an honorable discharge in 1944.Affidavit of William L. Hamling in support of Motion for Suspension of Execution of Sentence, and Probation, No. 10791, written by William Hamling and as prepared by the law offices of Stanley Fleishman, October 31, 1974
Stardust In 1940, Hamling published five issues of a semi-professional science fiction magazine, titled Stardust. It carried fiction by well-known professionals such as L. Sprague de Camp, Robert Moore Williams and Jack Williamson, and was much more impressive than most magazines produced by fans. Science fiction historian Sam Moskowitz suggests that it was produced as part to support the Chicago bid for the 1940 Worldcon, an annual science fiction convention. The bid was successful, and the fourth issue went on sale at the convention in Chicago, but only one more issue appeared.Madle & Ashley (1985), pp. 606-607. Hamling claimed that the circulation reached almost a thousand copies, but evidently it was too expensive to be continued.Warner (1971), p. 282.
Early writing career
On his return to Chicago, Hamling resumed writing and selling fiction. He wrote various forms of fiction, including science fiction, westerns, mysteries, and detective and adventure stories. Many of these were published in Chicago-based Ziff-Davis Publishing Company magazines such as Amazing Stories, Fantastic Adventures, Mammoth Western, South Sea Stories. In January 1946, Hamling became an assistant editor at Ziff-Davis. During his five years with Ziff-Davis he eventually became managing editor of the company's fiction magazines.Affidavit of William L. Hamling in support of Motion for Suspension of Execution of Sentence, and Probation, No. 10791, written by William Hamling and as prepared by the law offices of Stanley Fleishman, October 31, 1974
While Hamling was with the Ziff-Davis Publishing Company he met a man named Leroy Yerxa, from whom he purchased on behalf of the company fiction material which Yerxa wrote on assignment. Yerxa's wife Frances also wrote for the company. Her writing was more in the factual areas, articles on various fields of science. Leroy died in 1946. In 1948 Hamling married Frances.
Frances was born in Eaton Rapids, Michigan. She had four children from her previous marriage. The Hamlings had two more children.Affidavit of William L. Hamling in support of Motion for Suspension of Execution of Sentence, and Probation, No. 10791, written by William Hamling and as prepared by the law offices of Stanley Fleishman, October 31, 1974
In the 1940s Hamling saw his first novels published. His Shadow of the Sphinx is a horror novel about an ancient Egyptian sorceress. First published during the 1940s in Fantastic Adventures, it was described by Lin Carter 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."
Greenleaf Publishing Company
In 1950 Ziff-Davis decided to transfer operations to New York City. Hamling decided to stay in Chicago. Hamling then organized Greenleaf Publishing Company in Chicago.Affidavit of William L. Hamling in support of Motion for Suspension of Execution of Sentence, and Probation, No. 10791, written by William Hamling and as prepared by the law offices of Stanley Fleishman, October 31, 1974 The company was also known as Greenleaf Classics, Reed Enterprises, Corinth Publications, Regency Publications, Blake Pharmaceuticals, Phenix Publishing and Freedom Publishing. Their first publication was Imagination. His wife worked closely with him in the early years of his publishing company.
Imagination published its first issue in October 1950. From its inception, Hamling was the editor and publisher, and Ray Palmer the front. Although Hamling credits Palmer as the editor in response to a letter in the February 1951 issue of Fantastic Adventures, the last issue of that magazine which Hamling edited.Fantastic Adventures, February 1951 Hamling was to become notorious for the layers of insulation he kept between his activities, his fronts, and even between himself and co-workers and employees.Rog Phillips' The Club House, The Last Stand, 2012, pg. 488.
With the third issue Imagination became an "official" Greenleaf property, as too Imaginative Tales when it was launched in September 1954.
According to L. Sprague de Camp's 1953 Science-Fiction Handbook, Hamling was at that time a "slim, dark man who looks too young to be not only an independent publisher but also the father of five."
Rogue
The Greenleaf Publishing Company initially published science fiction magazines and a spectrum of similar publications, and it was not until November 1955 that Greenleaf published the first issue of Rogue (although it had a cover date of December), a magazine which was competitive with Playboy.Affidavit of William L. Hamling in support of Motion for Suspension of Execution of Sentence, and Probation, No. 10791, written by William Hamling and as prepared by the law offices of Stanley Fleishman, October 31, 1974
About Playboy and Hugh Hefner, Hamling states in a letter to his friend, and lawyer, Stanley Fleishman: "I remember my friend Hugh Hefner coming to me in 1953 to propose an idea for a magazine to be called Playboy. Hef was talented but poor and his passion had been fantasy. He was a struggling cartoonist and had been working in a clerical capacity at Esquire. I had been buying fantasy cartoons from him for several years (they were so bad I never published them but he needed the money and to this day we have a running routine where I threaten to issue them as a nostalgic bonanza but defer to his pleadings of personal embarrassment) and one evening he and his charming wife, Millie [Mildred Williams], visited Fran and me and I responded to his suggestion of Playboy with the remark, 'Hef, you can't sell sex to the American public.' Today Hef is still talented but he is no longer poor. My quote has since become a standard joke in the fourth estate.
"...That night brought another turning point in my life. While I refused financial participation in Playboy (the greatest economic error in publishing history) I helped him secure authors and artists and indeed over the early years actually provided a training school for his editorial and art personnel. I trained the editors and he hired them away..."Letter, July 9, 1974, from William Hamling, on Reed Enterprise, Inc. stationery, to his friend, and lawyer, Stanley Fleishman
Greenleaf, then, published Rogue and a photographic magazine in book form called Model Art, as well as different numbers of science fiction publications.Affidavit of William L. Hamling in support of Motion for Suspension of Execution of Sentence, and Probation, No. 10791, written by William Hamling and as prepared by the law offices of Stanley Fleishman, October 31, 1974 Rogue began much as Imagination had before it, the Hamling basement in Evanston, Illinois. Hamling and his wife sat side by side and worked on it together.
Rogue was distributed by Empire News, and in 1955 attempts were made by the Post Office to ban it. The services of Thurman Arnold, Abe Fortas, and Paul Porter were obtained to represent it. In the district court of Washington, D.C. an injunction was granted against the government, and the magazine received the right to use the mails. The adjudication took place in 1957. Second class mailing privileges were granted.Affidavit of William L. Hamling in support of Motion for Suspension of Execution of Sentence, and Probation, No. 10791, written by William Hamling and as prepared by the law offices of Stanley Fleishman, October 31, 1974
Hamling was the editor and publisher, his wife, Frances, was executive editor.
In 1958, business at Rogue was so good that both Imagination and Imaginative Tales were no longer needed in order to make Hamling money, and the offices were moved from the Hamling basement to the Graphics Arts Building in Evanston. Coupled with the recent liquidation of the major US distributor for magazines, American News Company, Hamling ceased publication of his science fiction digests and began to concentrate solely on Rogue.
The adult paperback empire
In 1959, Hamling started publishing paperback novels. Originally, these novels were published under the trade name of Nightstand Books, Midnight Reader, and Regency Books. Nightstand Books was an imprint for paperback original sex novels by authors working under house names. (Later imprints included Leisure Books, Ember Library, Midnight Readers, and others). Still later, books were published under the trade name of Greenleaf Classics.Affidavit of William L. Hamling in support of Motion for Suspension of Execution of Sentence, and Probation, No. 10791, written by William Hamling and as prepared by the law offices of Stanley Fleishman, October 31, 1974
In 1959, Harlan Ellison, along with his wife Charlotte [Stein], moved to Evanston where Harlan was employed by William Hamling at Rogue. Ellison had returned to Chicago, to set up William Hamling's black box operation for publishing pornography under the false front company of Blake Pharmaceuticals, housed in the offices next door to the headquarters for Rogue. The "black box operation" was how they received manuscripts secretly provided for by the Scott Meredith Literary Agency.