Greenberg’s Work Is Done Here

This has certainly not been a good week for the mystery-fiction community. First we saw Columbo star Peter Falk go to that great crime scene in the sky. Now comes the announcement that editor and anthologist Martin H. Greenberg has passed away at age 70. His friend and colleague, Ed Gorman, reports that “Marty died peacefully this afternoon in his sleep at home in Green Bay, Wisconsin.”

A political science professor at the University of Wisconsin, Greenberg worked over the years not only with Gorman but also with Isaac Asimov, Jon L. Lellenberg, Bill Pronzini, and others to produce short-story collections such as Holmes for the Holidays (1998), The Big Book of Noir (1998), Purr-Fect Crime (1997), and Murder Most Irish (1996).

Bill Crider shares his thoughts online about Greenberg’s demise, as do Max Allan Collins and Russell Davis.

POSTSCRIPT: Jiro Kimura of The Gumshoe Site offers some additional information about Greenberg and his career, which I think is worth noting. He was “called ‘the king of anthologies,’ editing, singularly and collaboratively, too many anthologies in the science-fiction, mystery, military, and romance genres to list them all here,” Kimura writes. “He co-edited Stalkers (ROC, 1990; with Ed Gorman), 14 Vicious Valentines (Avon, 1988; with Isaac Asimov, etc.), The Mammoth Book of Private Eye Stories (Carroll & Graf, 1988; with Bill Pronzini) among others. He received the 1995 Ellery Queen Award from the Mystery Writers of America, and The Tony Hillerman Companion (HarperCollins, 1994; edited singularly) and The Fine Art of Murder (Carroll & Graf, 1993; co-edited by Jon L. Breen, Ed Gorman, and Larry Segriff) were Edgar-nominated in the critical/biographical category.” He adds that Greenberg’s death came “after a long battle with cancer.”

READ MORE: “Marty Greenberg Obit,” by Mike Stotter
(Shotsmag Confidential).