Greenberg, Martin H.

Greenberg, Martin H. (1941–)

(pop culture)

Political scientist and anthologist Martin H. Greenberg has prepared a number of anthologies of vampire short fiction. Born and raised in Miami, he attended Miami University, and after graduation pursued graduate work at the University of Connecticut, from where he received both his master’s and doctorate degrees in Political Science in 1965 and 1969 respectively. He accepted a position at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and became chairman of the department in 1971. In 1972 he moved back to his home state to work at Florida International University in Miami.

As a young man, Greenberg became interested in science fiction and as early as 1974 coedited his first anthology (with Patricia Warrick), Political Science Fiction. Since that time he has been involved in the editing of more than fifty similar books, convinced that science fiction is the most important literary genre of the modern age. For his anthologies, he deliberately sought works that integrated the insights of social science with fiction.

In the late 1980s, Greenberg began to look at horror fiction in general and vampire fiction in particular, producing such collections as Back from the Dead, Cults of Horror, and Devil Worshippers. The first strictly vampire anthology, Vamps (1987), looked at the role of women as exemplified in vampire literature. He also became fascinated with the durability of the vampire in the face of the demise of other monster types in the late twentieth century. As the centennial of the publication of Dracula approached in 1997, Greenberg worked with Lawrence Schimel in producing a four-volume set of regional American vampire stories. Since then he has edited a number of anthologies including Single White Vampire Seeks Same (2001, with Brittany A. Koren), The Repentant (2003, with Brian Thompson), and Better Off Undead (2008, with Daniel M. Hoyt). Most recently he worked with Robert Eighteen-Bisang compiling The Vampire Stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (2009).

Sources:

Asimov, Isaac, Martin H. Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh. Young Monsters. New York: Harper & Row, 1985. 213 pp.Greenberg, Martin H. Dracula: Prince of Darkness. New York: DAW Books, 1992. 316 pp.———. A Taste for Blood. New York: Barnes & Noble. 1992. 589 pp.———, ed. Celebrity Vampires. New York: DAW Books, 1995. 318 pp.———. Vampire Detectives. New York, NY: DAW Books, 1995. 320 pp.Greenberg, Martin H., and Brittany A. Koren, eds. Single White Vampire Seeks Same. New York: DAW Books, 2001. 317 pp.———, and Charles G. Waugh, eds. Vamps. New York: DAW Books, 1987. 365 pp.Schimel, Lawrence, and Martin Greenberg, eds. Blood Lines: Vampire Stories from New England. Nashville, TN: Cumberland House, 1997. 224 pp.———. Fields of Blood: Vampire Stories from the Heartland. Nashville, TN: Cumberland House, 1998. 208 pp.———. Southern Blood: Vampire Stories from the American South. Nashville, TN: Cumberland House, 1997. 203 pp.———. Streets of Blood: Vampire Stories from New York City. Nashville, TN: Cumberland House, 1998. 231 pp.Thomsen, Brian M., and Martin H. Greenberg, eds. The Repentant. New York: DAW Books, 2003. 313 pp.Weinberg, Robert, Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, and Martin Greenberg. Weird Vampire Tales: 30 Blood-Chilling Stories from the Weird Fiction Pulps. New York: Gramercy Books, 1992. 442 pp.———. 100 Vicious Little Vampire Stories. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1995. 588 pp.———. Rivals of Dracula. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1996. 377 pp.Yolen, Jane, and Martin H. Greenberg. Vampires. New York: HarperTrophy, 1991. 228 pp.