Irving Greenfield RIP

 Irving A. Greenfield, RIP

February 22, 1929 - April 1, 2020

Somewhat belatedly, I discovered that Irving A. Greenfield passed away on April 1, 2020, at age 91. Greenfield was a one-man publishing machine, having authored over 300 novels, as well as plays, short stories, and essays. Greenfield's novels represented many different genera, including sci-fi, crime / thriller, sleaze, western, horror, action / war, and historical. 

Reminiscences about Greenfield, from the actors and directors who performed his Off-Broadway plays, can be viewed at this website.

For me, Greenfield always will be associated with his 1975 Cro-Magnon Splatterpunk novel 'Aton', which was eagerly passed from hand to hand in my freshman year at high school.

While trying to assemble all the pulp fiction that Greenfield wrote is impractical, I do have several of his novels in my possession.

(I think I even have a copy of 'Campo Verde' - aka 'Succubus' - that I've yet to scan, in a box somewhere in my basement)

Some of Greenfield's sci-fi novels look like they are best left on the shelf - over at the 'Science Fiction and Suspect Ruminations' blog, Joachim Boaz was underwhelmed (to put it politely) by Greenfield's 1967 Waters of Death.

I can't speak for Greenfield's naval adventure novels (the Depth Force series), nor his short stories in highbrow journals and chapbooks, but his westerns (the 'Carey' series) are engaging enough. 

Given his enormous output, it's reasonable to assume that not everything Greenfield wrote was a literary find. But with that caveat in mind, if you see some of his titles on the shelf of your favorite used bookstore, giving them a look might be worth your while.