[DMcCunney]

I'm a long time fan of SF and fantasy. I've been reading the genre for over 50 years, and involved in organized SF fan activities for over 40. In the process, I've had the opportunity to meet many of the people in the field, and Dave was one of them

I first met Dave 40 some years ago. He was a consulting editor at the Signet imprint of NAL Books. Signet had a long history of SF publishing, but the line had fallen into disarray, and Dave was on board to help restore it. He described it taking 7 months just to determine who Signet had under contract for what, and another 5 to dot Is, cross Ts, and get contracts renewed. And even then, Signet lost properties they wanted to keep because they had forgotten they had the rights to something, but the author or author's agent hadn't, and formally asked for the rights to revert when they became available. (You would think a publisher would at least know who they had under contract for what, but Signet didn't. I haven't seen much evidence the rest of publishing has gotten any better.)

Dave liked to have lots of part time jobs, and also taught graduate level English classes (he was technically Dr. Hartwell, with a PhD in English), ran a college dorm, dealt rare books, and did other things I'm probably forgetting. He was editor of the Berkley/Putnam SF line for a while, and described the fun when they were discussing what to pay him. He said "I don't want a full time job. I like having several part time jobs. Figure out what you were going to pay me, knock a grand or so off of it, and give me the result as an expense account I can use to go to all of the SF cons I like to attend!" I doubt Berkley/Putnam understood, but they did as requested.

Dave had broad interests, and aside from a passionate involvement in literature, he liked deconstructing men's fashion. Part of that effort included a collection of ties you wouldn't believe existed till you saw him wearing one of them.

He was a founder of both Sercon and Readercon, and on the board of and largely responsible for the annual World Fantasy Convention.

Most recently, he was a Senior Editor at Tor Books, and the original announcement was made by Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Tor's Manager of SF and close editorial associate.

If there is a pantheon of late giants in the SF genre publishing field, it includes Ian Ballantine, John W. Campbell, Terry Carr, Fred Pohl, Donald A. Wollheim, and now, damn it, Dave.

A light has gone out in my personal sky.
______
Dennis