Louis Horace Silberkleit (; 17 November 1900 – 21 February 1986) was an American publisher of magazines, books, and comic books; together with

Maurice Coyne Maurice Coyne (born 21 March 1955 in London) is a British citizen, British hard rock guitarist. He attended Colvestone Primary School in Dalston, and Upton House Secondary School in London Borough of Hackney, Hackney. In 1974 he formed the ba ...

and John L. Goldwater, he co-founded

MLJ Magazines Archie Comic Publications, Inc., is an American comic book publisher headquartered in Pelham, New York.Archie Comics), and served as its publisher for many years.

Biography

Silberkleit attended Morris High School in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, graduating in 1919. His first job was in 1923 as circulation promoter for the ''

New York Evening Mail The ''New York Evening Mail'' (1867–1924) was an American daily newspaper published in New York City. For a time the paper was the only evening newspaper to have a franchise in the Associated Press. History Names The paper was founded as th ...

''. In 1925 he moved over to

Eastern Distributing Corporation Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai *Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air Li ...

, which distributed many of the early

pulp magazines Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...

published by

Hugo Gernsback Hugo Gernsback (; born Hugo Gernsbacher, August 16, 1884 – August 19, 1967) was a Luxembourgish–American editor and magazine publisher, whose publications including the first science fiction magazine. His contributions to the genre as pub ...

. Silberkleit started out as Eastern's circulation manager of periodicals, and by 1929 had been promoted to circulation manager of the entire company. That year Silberkleit hired a young Martin Goodman to be his assistant, beginning a long professional relationship.Saunders, David
"LOUIS H. SILBERKLEIT (1900–1985),"
''Field Guide to Wild American Pulp Artists''. Accessed Feb. 26, 2017. Eastern Distributing went bankrupt in 1932. According to his son Michael,
''New York Times'' (February 25, 1986). Accessed 19 July 2015. Silberkleit began his career in publishing when he founded

Columbia Publications Columbia Publications was an American publisher of pulp magazines featuring the genres of science fiction, westerns, detective stories, romance, and sports fiction. The company published such writers as Isaac Asimov, Louis L'Amour, Arthur C. Cla ...

, a publisher of magazines featuring science fiction, westerns and detective stories by writers such as Isaac Asimov and

Louis L'Amour Louis Dearborn L'Amour (; né LaMoore; March 22, 1908 – June 10, 1988) was an American novelist and short story writer. His books consisted primarily of Western novels (though he called his work "frontier stories"); however, he also wrote hi ...

. According to other sources, in October 1932 Silberkleit and Goodman formed the two companies Mutual Magazine Distributors and Newsstand Publishers; their first publication was the pulp magazine ''Complete Western Book Magazine'', cover-dated October 1933. (Mutual Magazine went bankrupt in 1935.) Silberkleit graduated from

New York Law School New York Law School (NYLS) is a private law school in Tribeca, New York City. NYLS has a full-time day program and a part-time evening program. NYLS's faculty includes 54 full-time and 59 adjunct professors. Notable faculty members include E ...

in 1934.Field guide to Wild American PULP ARTISTS by David Saunders
(last visited on 19 July 2015) That same year, Silberkleit formed Winford Publications with John L. Goldwater; Winford's business manager was Maurice Coyne. Winford published such titles as ''Double Action Western'', ''Real Western'', ''Mystery Novels'', ''Underworld Detective'', and ''Complete Northwest Novel Magazine''. Editor

Abner Sundell In the Hebrew Bible, Abner ( he, אַבְנֵר ) was the cousin of King Saul and the commander-in-chief of his army. His name also appears as "Abiner son of Ner", where the longer form Abiner means "my father is Ner". Biblical narrative A ...

came on board in 1935; he later played an important role at MLJ Magazines. In short order, Silberkleit and partners (including Harold Hammond) formed a number of other pulp publishers: Chesterfield Publications, Northwest Publishing, Blue Ribbon Magazines,

, and Double Action Magazines. The headquarters of all these companies were in the vicinity of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

's City Hall; by May 1937 they were consolidated under the name Double-Action Magazines, located at 60 Hudson Street. By 1941, Silberkleit had phased out all the other publisher names and merged all the titles under the umbrella of

(and hired Robert A. W. Lowndes as his lead editor). In 1939, in response to the popularity of Superman and ''

Action Comics ''Action Comics'' is an American comic book/ magazine series that introduced Superman, one of the first major superhero characters. The publisher was originally known as National Allied Publications, and later as National Comics Publications ...

'', Silberkleit, Goldwater, and Coyne founded the

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

publisher

MLJ Magazines Archie Comic Publications, Inc., is an American comic book publisher headquartered in Pelham, New York.superhero comics, MLJ Magazines produced the first '' Archie Comics'' in the winter of 1942, described by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' as "a series of comic books detailing the antics of Archie and his teen-age friends." Archie soon became MLJ Magazine's headliner, which led to the company changing its name to ''Archie Comic Publications''. Columbia Publications lasted until 1960, at which point Silberkleit, Goldwater, and Coyne immediately founded

Belmont Books Belmont Books, also known as Belmont Productions, was an American publisher of genre fiction paperback originals founded in 1960. It specialized in science fiction, horror fiction, horror and fantasy, with titles appearing from 1961 through 1971. T ...

, a low-rent publisher of paperback originals in the science fiction, horror, and mystery genres.Hyfler, Richard
"Books For Bus Terminals: Whatever Happened to Belmont Productions?"
''Forbes.com'' (SEP 15, 2010). Beginning c. 1958, Silberkleit was also a silent partner in

Tower Publications Tower Publications was an American publisher based in New York City that operated from 1958 to c. 1981. Originally known for their Midwood Books line of erotic literature, erotic men's fiction, it also published science fiction and fantasy under it ...

, publisher of the Midwood Books line of soft-core erotic fiction for men, and later, Tower Books and

Tower Comics Tower Comics was an American comic book publishing company that operated from 1965 to 1969, best known for Wally Wood's ''T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents'', a strange combination of secret agents and superheroes; and Samm Schwartz's ''Tippy Teen'', an Archi ...

.Feldman, Michael
"The Secret Origin of Tower Comics"
in ''The Thunder Agents Companion'' by Jon B. Cooke (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2005), p. 85. In 1971, Tower acquired the assets of Belmont Books, merging the two companies to form Belmont Tower.

Personal life

On May 16, 1926 Louis Silberkleit married Lillian Meisel (20 April 1903 – 23 April 1970), a Lithuanian of Jewish ancestry who came to America in 1914. On April 27, 1932 their only son, Michael Ivan Silberkleit, was born in New York City. On April 23, 1970 Lillian Silberkleit died in New York City at the age of sixty-seven. In 1972 he married his second wife, Nicole Bernheim.

Death and legacy

Louis H. Silberkleit died on Friday February 21, 1986 at

Mount Sinai Hospital (Manhattan) Mount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, is one of the oldest and largest teaching hospitals in the United States. It is located in East Harlem in the New York City borough of Manhattan, on the eastern border of Central Park stretching along Madi ...

. He was survived by his second wife Nicole Bernheim and his son Michael I. Silberkleit (from his first marriage) and daughter Ally Silberkleit. Michael Silberkleit became chairman of Archie Comics after his father's death. Michael died on August 5, 2008; his widow Nancy became co-CEO of the company with Jonathan Goldwater ( John L. Goldwater's son).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silberkleit, Louis H. 1900 births 1986 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople Archie Comics American magazine publishers (people) Columbia Publications