Fiction spectacular, p.1
Fiction Spectacular, page 1
Jerry eBooks
No copyright 2022 by Jerry eBooks
No rights reserved. All parts of this book may be reproduced in any form and by any means for any purpose without any prior written consent of anyone.
Complete Fiction
William L. Hamling
(custom book cover)
Jerry eBooks
About William L. Hamling
Pseudonyms
“The Who’s Who in Fandom”
“Meet the Author”
“Presenting the Author”
“Introducing the Author”
Bibliography
Short Fiction Bibliography
1938
Yearning
1939
War with Jupiter
The Rule of the Witch
1940
The Secret of the Tomb
The Siege of Althor
Surcease
1941
The Passing of Hastur
1944
Overlord of Venus
The Man Who Spoke Too Late
Death Rides a Convoy
1945
I’ll Dig Your Grave
Peril from the Outlands
Why Don’t You Die?
The Animated Tenpin
Bag and Baggage
A Problem in Lumbering
Planet of the Duplicates
1946
. . . but the PATIENT DIED
Jimmy Takes a Trip
You’ll Die Laughing
The Mirror
Shadow of the Sphinx
1947
Rejuvenation Asteroid
Orphan of Atlans
The Prop
1949
The Man Who Laughed at Time
1952
Patrol
1954
Trigger Proud
William Lawrence Hamling, born on June 14, 1921 in Chicago, Illinois, was a Chicago-based author and publisher active from the late-1940s through to the mid-1970s.
Hamling began as an author. 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.”
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, Regency Publications, Blake Pharmaceuticals, Phenix Publishing and Freedom Publishing) in the early 1950s with Imagination. His wife, science fiction author Frances Deegan Yerxa Hamling, worked closely with him in the early years of his publishing company.
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.”
In the late 1950s, he began Rogue, and in 1959, he launched Nightstand Books, an imprint for paperback original sex novels by authors working under house names. (Later imprints included Leisure Books, Ember Library, Midnight Readers, and others). From 1961 on his primary editor was Earl Kemp. Pseudonymous writers for Kemp/Hamling included Lawrence Block, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Harlan Ellison, Evan Hunter, Robert Silverberg, and Donald E. Westlake.
Hamling helped finance the defense of bookstore clerk Robert Redrup. His appeal of his conviction on obscenity charges for selling two Greenleaf Books (Lust Pool and Shame Agent) in 1965 went to the Supreme Court of the United States, where it was overturned in Redrup v. New York 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 Talese’s Thy Neighbor’s Wife.
William L. Hamling died on June 29, 2017 in Palm Springs, California.
PSEUDONYMS
Alexander Blade
W. Lawrence Hamling
William Lawrence Hamling
Richard H. Nelson
HAMLING, WILLIAM LAWRENCE (BILL)----19, 5' 9", 136, brown eyes and hair. He says that “some people have the misfortune to believe that I am handsome!” Cannot say when he became interested in stf, as he has read it as far back as he can remember. Started to indulge in it more wholeheartedly around ’35. From that tine on, he became a rabid, if somewhat passive fan. Didn’t take fandom seriously till ’38. His entrance into fan activities is due to Mark Reinsberg. Has written for a number of fan mags and is Chicago Reporter for FANTASY NEWS. Collaborated with Reinsberg on "War With Jupiter", which was accepted by AMAZING. Hopes to crash it’s portals again. Some months ago, he brought out STARDUST, fandom's only printed magazine. This a semi-pro. When in school, he was the editor of the LANE TECH PREP, one of the largest High School mags in the world.
Originally appeared in The Who’s Who in Fandom, Summer 1940
Meet the Author
IT’S been a long time since I’ve been able to say anything in good old AMAZING, but they always say, good things mellow and ripen with age! One thing is sure though, a lot of water has passed under the bridge since my last yarn adorned these pages. It’s almost like a dream when I look back and say: Born June 14, 1921, reared in this great city of Chicago—Univ. of Chicago in 1940—and the good old fan days. Possibly some of you still remember STARDUST, the slick paper fan magazine I edited in ’39 and ’40. Those were the good old days, when none of us thought of the “little yellow men” with anything but contempt.
Now, like most other young Americans, I’m part of Uncle Sam’s armed forces. I joined up in November ’42. Went through the inevitable training every Infantry soldier (God bless them!) goes through, and after much toil and trouble, got my commission last June in ’43.
Since then I’ve been taking part in training and maneuvers preparatory to the “big hop over.” Which leads to what proved to be quite an experience for me. On one of these maneuvers a land mine went off too close for comfort—and I landed in an army hospital. I’ve since been released from that worthy establishment (after much “observation and treatment”) and am awaiting the next step. One thing I got out of it was the loss of bearing in my right ear.
I understand that I am the only Infantryman in this issue. I consider this somewhat of an honor. For while the boys in our Air Corps are doing one hell of a splendid job, the good old Infantry is the backbone of our operations. And boy, let me tell you that backbone can get mighty sore! But that’s one thing American soldiers have—a strong backbone I And we’re proving it on all fronts.
There isn’t much more to say now. We’ll be able to say a lot more when this is all over. And when that time comes I hope to see you frequently in these pages. So I’ll be seeing you . . .
Originally appeared in Amazing Stories, September 1944
Presenting the Author
WHEN a writer finishes a story and totals the wordage, quite often—all too often, in my case—he finds the yarn longer than he intended it to be. I suppose the same should hold true when he writes about himself. , I’m supposed to fill a certain amount of space here, space about half the length of a short-short, yet strangely enough I don’t know whether I’ll be able to. It seems just a bit too much space in which to talk about myself.
Anyway, the “vital statistics” as Esquire would say, can be summed up very briefly—thank God: Age, 25; weight, 160; height, 5′ 10″; sex, male, and as for the color of my hair and eyes, you shouldn’t be interested, unless you happen to be a lovely female—blonde, brunette, or redhead—I’m not particular. Then I would be interested.
Along about 1939 I started beating words out on a typewriter and sold my first story. A lot of time was to elapse from then on, and a lot of world-shaking events were to occur, before I got back to writing and selling. (Apologies to Jack Woodford.) The major event, of course, happened to be a global struggle which you may have heard-of. I had it drawn strongly to my attention one morning in ’42 when the postman brought, me a letter of greetings—the only communication I ever expect to receive from a President of the United States.
So for around two years I found myself in uniform, graduating from a raw green yardbird into a seasoned all-wise lieutenant of infantry. (I have since decided both are more or less the same, thing.) Then I had a little argument with a land mine. I seldom win an argument, and this particular case proved to be no exception. I woke up to that fact in a hospital. Eventually I was on my way home, and my uniform days became a bitter-sweet memory.
CONFRONTED once again with the sordid business of existence, I found myself on the well-known horns of a dilemma. I had to make a momentous decision—either become a writer or return to work. Being a naturally lazy person, I chose the course of least resistance, and once more started beating words out of my typewriter.
For some reason which I haven’t been able to fathom as yet, Ray Palmer and Howard Browne—respectively ye Managing and Associate Editors of FANTASTIC ADVENTURES—liked these stories and told me to come again. In my humble opinion, Ray and Howard are the finest editors in the pulps today. It is my good fortune to be able to include them both among my close personal friends.
I’d already, made contact with another old friend, Chester S. Geier, who owed me a couple of bucks—and . . . but I’ll skip that, if you don’t mind. Chet, as you may know, also writes detective and science-fantasy. I persuaded him to quit a job he was holding with a transport firm, and together we opened up an office on the North Side of Chicago. We’ve been here two years and hope to remain indefinitely.
One nice thing about having your own office is that you can come in late, loaf, and generally waste a lot of time. We manage to do a lot of all three. There’s a sign on our office door which reads: “Hamling & Geier, Literary Productions.” We’ve both been tempted many times to change it to “Literary Non-Productions.” But with Ray and Howard to shake a reprimanding finger at us, we do manage to turn out quite a bit of work.
There are only two things I’d rather do than write—listen to classical music (of which I have an extensive collection), and play poker. The former I do with great pleasure, the latter with frequent regret. In between times I bowl and read Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, and John Evans. It is my fond hope to some day climb as high as these boys have done.
Anyway, half as high.
—William Lawrence Hamling.
Originally appeared in Fantastic Adventures, September 1946
Introducing the Author
IT’S been said many times that editors are frustrated writers. If they are, I like to think that they’re frustrated because they can’t write enough! In that sense I frequently feel frustrated—my time is fiendishly preyed upon by editorial and production matters to the point where turning out a new fiction piece seems nothing but a tantalizing dream. And since I made my professional debut in science fiction as a writer some
seventeen of my thirty-three summers ago, this frustration takes solid form every month when I sit down to write Madge’s editorial and also answer letters in the Reader’s section. At such times I vow that next month I’ll get a new story written (and easily published!) but somehow next month follows the pattern of those previous. So for the sake of easing this frustration, let’s call this the Editor’s Story—for which he conveniently made room in this June issue of the World’s best science fiction magazine!
The above statement will assure you of my complete lack of modesty, and that is true wherever Madge is concerned. The little lady is the love of my life and 1 am as proud and fond of her as I am of my family. This is understandable when I reflect that science fiction is not just a means of livelihood to me: science fiction is my major interest, both as a pastime and career. I am one person who sincerely would have preferred being born a century or two from now. I never look at the moon and stars without feeling that thus far in my life I’ve really been cheated; someday men will not look at the stars—they’ll visit them. I’d hock my place in eternity to be one of those men. For the stars are man’s destiny; this pebble we now reside upon is merely an incubator being warmed by our own parent star, Sol, until the day when man leaves his cocoon, and journeys forth into the heart of creation—outer space.
I felt this way the first time I became aware that the sky was not just a ceiling over my childhood home; and I suppose this explains why science fiction became the focal point of my later activities. For only in science fiction can the future happen—now. So writing about it, or publishing what others write about it, brings me close to the great adventure of man in the centuries ahead.
All of which makes me a dreamer, I suppose. But the realities of presentday science were once dreams, so I consider dreaming to be the motivating force behind progress. I’m all for progress, and feel confident it will put man on the Moon within my lifetime. That much I will live to see.
Unfortunately all of my life in the past has not been taken up with science fiction. There was that hitch of a couple of years war service back in the early forties; a few reams of detective, mystery, and western stories to various magazines. My editorial schooling at Ziff-Davis as managing editor of a flock of publications, favorites being Fantastic Adventures and Amazing Stories. Five pleasant and educational years that prepared me for IMAGINATION, the answer to one of my favorite science fiction dreams—publishing my own magazine. Along the way I married the most charming girl in the world, and we have some of the finest kids ever slated for careers as space pilots or a Mars run hostess.
You think that’s stretching the imagination too far? I don’t think so. And in the meantime we’ll let it run wild in the pages of this magazine. Yours—and mine.
—William L. Hamling
Originally appeared in Imagination, June 1954
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Magazine-published Novels
Shadow of the Sphinx, Fantastic Adventures, November 1946
Orphan of Atlans, Amazing Stories, February 1947
SHORT FICTION BIBLIOGRAPHY
CHRONOLOGICAL
1938
Yearning, Spaceways #7, August 1938
1939
War with Jupiter, Amazing Stories, May 1939
The Finger, The Stunning Scientifan, Fall 1939
The Rule of the Witch, Spaceways #9, November 1939
1940
Man of Hell, The Comet, #4, 1940
The Secret of the Tomb, Spaceways #11, March 1940
The Siege of Althor, Spaceways #12, April 1940
Surcease, Spaceways #14, July 1940
1941
The Passing of Hastur, Spaceways #23, October 1941
1944
Overlord of Venus, Amazing Stories, September 1944
The Man Who Spoke Too Late, Fantastic Adventures, October 1944
Death Rides a Convoy, Mammoth Detective, November 1944
1945
I’ll Dig Your Grave, Mammoth Mystery, February 1945
Murder on Your Hands, Mammoth Detective, February 1945
Good Luck Murders, Mammoth Detective, May 1945
Peril from the Outlands, Amazing Stories, June 1945
Why Don’t You Die?, Mammoth Detective, August 1945
The Animated Tenpin, Amazing Stories, September 1945
Bag and Baggage, Fantastic Adventures, October 1945
Death Drinks the Dregs, Mammoth Detective, November 1945
A Problem in Lumbering, Fantastic Adventures, December 1945
Planet of the Duplicates, Amazing Stories, December 1945
1946
. . . but the Patient Died, Mammoth Detective, January 1946
Green Eyes Are Watching, Mammoth Adventure, July 1946
Jimmy Takes a Trip, Fantastic Adventures, July 1946
You’ll Die Laughing, Mammoth Detective, July 1946
The Mirror, Fantastic Adventures, September 1946
There’s Always Tomorrow, Mammoth Detective, September 1946
Shadow of the Sphinx, Fantastic Adventures, November 1946
1947
Rejuvenation Asteroid, Amazing Stories, January 1947
Orphan of Atlans, Amazing Stories, February 1947
The Prop, Amazing Stories, August 1947
1949
Win, Lose or Die!, Ace-High Western Stories, January 1949
The Man Who Laughed at Time, Fantastic Adventures, August 1949
1951
The Two Strangers, .44 Western Magazine, July 1951
1952
The Knife and the Rope, New Western Magazine, July 1952
Patrol, Imagination, October 1952
Beans and Bullets Free!, Big-Book Western Magazine, November 1952
1953
Hang High the Strangers!, Western Story Magazine, February 1953
To Kill a Man, Western Story Magazine, August 1953
Watch Your Backtrail!, Dime Western Magazine, September 1953
1954
Trigger Proud, Fifteen Western Tales, January 1954
Three for Boothill, Fifteen Western Tales, July 1954
Dead Man’s Draw, 10 Story Western Magazine, September 1954
The Brave Little Butcher, Real Western Stories, October 1954
SHORT FICTION BIBLIOGRAPHY
ALPHABETICAL
A
A Problem in Lumbering, Fantastic Adventures, December 1945
