Henry Lieferant (1892-1968) & Sylvia B. Saltzberg (1896-1952)

Henry Lieferant

Author, Editor, Playwright

Born January 30, 1892, Przemysl, Austria (now Poland)

Died October 1968, New York, New York

Sylvia B. Saltzberg

Pathologist, Author, Playwright

Born June 17, 1896, New York, New York

Died January 24, 1952, New York, New York

Pulp fiction writers were known for their versatility. Although they may have specialized in one or two genres, many were capable of working in a wider range. Paid a pittance and by the word during the Great Depression, they had reason to write and sell what they could wherever they could. Although Henry Lieferant and his wife, Sylvia B. Saltzberg, wrote mainly romance and confession stories, they also managed to sell one story to Weird Tales magazine.

Henry Lieferant was born on January 30, 1892, in Przemysl, Austria (now Poland), and immigrated to the United States in 1910. He trained in his native land as a military engineer and earned his American citizenship by enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1918. At the time he was selling insurance for a living. After working for a fashion magazine, Lieferant freelanced until 1927, the year he signed on with McFadden Publications in New York. He became an editor on Bernarr McFadden's True Story magazine, which sold nearly two million copies a month in 1929, equalling or surpassing totals for the slick magazines of the day. Lieferant remained with McFadden until 1946. By then he had already written or co-written a number of novels, one of which, Doctors' Wives, was adapted to the silver screen in 1931.

Lieferant's co-writer was his wife, Sylvia B. Saltzberg, a New Yorker born on June 17, 1896, and a child of Russian (or Lithuanian) immigrants. Her name was in print as early as 1909 when she submitted a puzzle to St. Nicholas magazine. She attended Hunter College in New York and became a pathologist for the city in the late 1910s. A strand of popular fiction--the romance between doctor and nurse (or doctor and patient)--may trace back to Sylvia Saltzberg's experiences in the field of medicine.

Sylvia B. Saltzberg and Henry Lieferant met at a summer resort where Sylvia was recuperating. They were married in 1924. One of their early collaborations was for Weird Tales. "A Game of Chance," their only story for "The Unique Magazine," appeared in the January 1924 issue during Weird Tales' first full year in print. Specializing in romance stories and true confessions, the Lieferants contributed stories, serials, and novels to Sweetheart Stories, Five-Novels Monthly, Physical Culture, and other pulp magazines. They also wrote hardbound and paperback novels, including Doctors' Wives (1930), Charity Patient (1939, reprinted as Doctor's Temptation, 1959), Hospital-Quiet Please! (1941, reprinted as Dr. Anders' Dilemma, 1958), and The Gentile (1958). Their play, Hilda Cassidy, was staged in New York in 1933.

The writing careers of Henry Lieferant and Sylvia B. Saltzberg lasted more than three decades, surviving the transition from pulps to paperbacks. Even into the 1960s, you could still find their novels in print. Sylvia Lieferant died on January 24, 1952, at New York Hospital. Henry Lieferant died in October 1968 in New York City after being scalded in his bathtub. 

Henry Lieferant and Sylvia B. Salzberg's Story in Weird Tales

"A Game of Chance" (Jan. 1924)

Further Reading

Frank M. Robinson and Lawrence Davidson included a chapter on romance and confession pulps in their book, Pulp Culture (Collectors Press, 1998). You can read more about romance novels in The Look of Love by Jennifer McKnight-Trontz (Princeton Architectural Press, 2002).

The ecstatic nurse in a clinch with the manly doctor--dreams of romance are made of this.

Updated December 11, 2023. (Happy birthday, ASG.)
Thanks to Randal A. Everts for further information on Sylvia and Henry Lieferant.
Text and captions copyright 2011, 2023 Terence E. Hanley