author
William L. Hamling
1921–2017
Best known as a small-press publisher and magazine editor, this American writer moved through science fiction fandom, pulp publishing, and later the controversial world of adult paperbacks. His long career left a curious mark on mid-20th-century popular print culture.
1 Audiobook
Patrol
by William L. Hamling
About the author
Born in Chicago on June 14, 1921, William L. Hamling was an American writer, editor, and publisher whose work stretched across several corners of magazine and paperback history. He was active in science fiction fandom from a young age and wrote fiction as well as editorial material, building a reputation in fan and pulp circles long before he became widely known as a publisher.
Hamling is especially associated with Greenleaf Publishing and related imprints, which produced science fiction digests and later a large number of adult magazines and books. That publishing work made him a notable and sometimes controversial figure in debates over censorship and obscenity in the United States, but it also secured his place in the story of independent American publishing.
He remained connected to fandom over the course of his life and is remembered as part of the generation that helped shape mid-century genre culture from the ground up. He died in 2017.