Archives: The Science Fiction Hall of Fame

Otto Greenbach was an eccentric recluse living in upstate Oregon until famous SF editor, John W. Heinz, stumbled on him while on a moose wrestling expedition in 1953. After convincing the wild eyed Greenbach to put the gun down, Heinz somehow communicated with the hermit long enough to determine that Greenbach was a SF writer of some promise. Being a canny businessman, Heinz managed to strike a deal on the spot, where he would publish Greenbach's stories in return for Greenbach not shooting him. There began a long and threat filled relationship between the urbane but crafty Heinz and the monomaniacal Greenbach.

Being out of touch with society for so long, Greenbach's stories were individual to say the least. If he had been born a hundred years earlier, he would have been lauded as a prophet. As it was, he churned out story after clumsy story; the sole feature of each was a device which had already been invented. Thus: "Distance Pictures" (1953 - a crude approximation of TV), "The Sound from the Air" (1954 - Radio), "Wired!" (1954 - Mains Electricity) and "The Harmless Killer Drug" (1955 - Penicillin).

In 1956 Heinz attempted to cease publishing Greenbach's efforts in the face of derision from the public, but, after finding a moose head in his bed, reconsidered, and soon the works of the seer continued. "The Reds Overhead" predicted Russian spy satellites a year after Sputnik, and "The Big Cold". a SF murder mystery, featured the novel idea of a steam driven refrigerator in every household replacing the icebox.

Heinz ceased receiving contributions from Greenbach in 1962 and assumed that he had been devoured by wolves. However, Greenbach's name soon appeared appended to a bizarre Astrology column in The New Yorker, strangely just after the editor of The New Yorker had been holidaying north of Seattle.

Otto Greenbach - a loss to Science Fiction.