Louis Horace Silberkleit (/ˈsɪlbərklaɪt/;[1] 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), and served as its publisher for many years.

That year Silberkleit hired a young Martin Goodman to be his assistant, beginning a long professional relationship.

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's City Hall; by May 1937 they were consolidated under the name Double-Action Magazines, located at 60 Hudson Street.

[2] 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).

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.