Louis Horace Silberkleit (; 17 November 1900 – 21 February 1986) was an American publisher of magazines, books, and comic books; together with Maurice Coyne and John L. Goldwater, he co-founded MLJ Magazines (later known as

Archie Comics Archie Comic Publications, Inc. (often referred to simply as Archie Comics) is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the village of Pelham, New York. The company's many titles feature the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Jug ...

), and served as its publisher for many years.

Biography

Silberkleit attended Morris High School in the

Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

, 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 the ' ...

''. In 1925 he moved over to Eastern Distributing Corporation, 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 until around 1955. The term "pulp" derives from the wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed, due to their cheap nature. ...

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 included the first science fiction magazine, ''Amazing Stories''. His contributions to ...

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

Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov ( ; – April 6, 1992) was an Russian-born American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. H ...

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". His most widely known West ...

. 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 Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 until around 1955. The term "pulp" derives from the Pulp (paper), wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed, due to their ...

''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, American law school in the Tribeca neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City. The third oldest law school in New York City, its history predates its official founding in 1891 by Theodore William Dwight, T ...

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

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

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

Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...

and ''

Action Comics ''Action Comics'' is an American comic book/Comic anthology, magazine series that introduced Superman, one of the first major superhero characters. The publisher was originally known as Detective Comics Inc., which later merged into National ...

'', Silberkleit, Goldwater, and Coyne founded the

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

publisher MLJ Magazines. The name was derived from the initials of the first names of Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit, and John Goldwater. After starting out as a publisher of

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a fictional character who typically possesses ''superpowers'' or abilities beyond those of ordinary people, is frequently costumed concealing their identity, and fits the role of the hero, typically using their ...

comics, MLJ Magazines produced the first ''

'' in the winter of 1942, described by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' 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, 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, publisher of the Midwood Books line of soft-core

erotic fiction Erotic fiction is a part of erotic literature and a genre of fiction that portrays sex or sexual themes, generally in a more literary or serious way than the fiction seen in pornographic magazines. It sometimes includes elements of satire or so ...

for men, and later, Tower Books and Tower Comics.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

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

n 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. 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 20th-century American publishers (people) Archie Comics people American magazine publishers (people) Columbia Publications