Warner Green was a founder of Ackerly Green Publishing and the father of Sullivan Green.
Biography
Warner Green was born in 1917 on the island of Inisheer in Ireland’s Galway Bay. That year his parents immigrated to America, settling in Brooklyn. He worked on the Lower East Side as a child, binding books for Ackerly Printing House. That’s where he met his lifelong friend, M. Grey Ackerly.
Warner enlisted in the army and served in Northwest Europe, but there is little other information about his service. This is either because of the fire in 1973 that destroyed much of WWII’s army enlistee records or because much of what he did during the war is classified.
Warner’s Place in the Timeline
Warner’s time in the military is where The Mountaineers think the timeline might have changed. The ’94 Mountaineers came up with the theory that maybe Warner smuggled out supernatural materials the Axis had collected, then he set about publishing them in the States. If that’s true, then this is the moment that everything changed, and the cause of Warner’s missing service records.
In Phase Three, Deirdre Green received an email from Orvin Wallace, who had tracked down one of Warner’s military correspondences. The content of the letter seemed to confirm Warner’s involvement in the smuggling of supernatural materials.
Meredith,
In Wewelsburg at castle used for SS, cataloging many strange artifacts and manuscripts. Reich were writing their own mythology and this was center of their faith. Only just received word of your father’s death and unexpected handing down of printing house. Did you know? Miss you terribly old friend. End in sight.
WG
Founding Ackerly Green
Home from the war in 1945, Warner learned that Reginald Ackerly, Grey’s father, had died and left him the reigns of the printing house, instead of Grey. Only months into his role as reluctant owner, Warner hired a nineteen-year-old illustrator named Sylvia Sullivan to work in the art department. He was almost ten years her senior, but they were married a year later.
Many years later, Warner was feeling listless and grim and reconnected with his friend Meredith Grey Ackerly. Warner was tired of answering to stodgy shareholders and wanted to find a more creative role in the book industry. Warner left Ackerly Printing House, and he and Grey built a new company from nearly nothing. Warner was to run the creative aspects of the company, and Grey was to be the business head. Ackerly Green Publishing’s doors opened in the fall of 1954.
Grey and Warner were equal partners, although they had differing views about what to publish. Grey wanted to follow the post-war culture. Namely, he wanted to publish darker stories, in both tone and content, serious literature, and social commentary. Warner, on the other hand, wanted to give people something to take them away from the horrors of the previous ten years.
Grey, in the current timeline, won out, and the company focused on darker materials. Unfortunately, the company had little success. Their refusal to dive into the paperback pool didn’t help. They couldn’t get a foothold in the market. They refused to sacrifice quality, funneling their budget into a few talented authors, and publishing a handful of books a year, hoping they could stay afloat until one of the books hit big.
Leaving Ackerly Green
While Ackerly Green struggled to gain a foothold in the market, Sylvia became pregnant. Sullivan Green, Deirdre’s future father, was born in the spring of 1958. Warner distanced himself more and more from the company, and his old friend. He had to care for his wife (who was suffering episodes of deep depression by this time) and his baby boy.
Warner had been secretly making a deal to go back to Ackerly Printing House, which was now a booming paperback printer rebranded A&L Printing. When Grey found out, it was the end of their friendship. Warner worked as the floor manager of A&L Printing. Throughout the 60s, Sylvia’s mental illness grew deeper and more violent, and finally, Warner had his beloved wife institutionalized in order to protect her and their son. Sullivan grew up on the floor of the printing house, and by the 70s, Warner was in charge again. He was creatively dissatisfied and wounded by his wife’s degrading health, but now his son had a future. Sylvia took her own life in 1977, and Warner died a year later, leaving Sullivan to inherit the company.
Book of the Wild
During the Book of the Wild, the Ackerly Green Society was an initiative, seemingly led by Warner Green, in which Herman the Hippocampus pins were sold to readers, who would then use their magimystic properties to rediscover something which had been lost. No more than this is known, as of now, and all currently available information regarding this version of the Secret Society stems from a letter, written by Warner Green to be sent to readers, and found by Saberlane after the time switch, when he broke into a warehouse formerly owned by Ackerly Green, after being led there by the Herman Pin.
The letter was as follows:
Welcome to the Ackerly Green Secret Society
________ and as you know, elemental [materials] sometimes hold onto magic, and these pins, made of the rarest of metals, I’ve been told contain traces of magimystic energy. __________ and when the time comes, the pins may call on you to find what they have been asked to find __________ Something missing worth rediscovering. Further instructions are included within this mailing.TOO FADED TO READ___
All you truly need to know is that this must be kept in the strictest of confidence. ____________________ The pin, its purpose, even your membership in this society, must be kept secret from those who cannot bring themselves to believe. But we believe. Magic is real, and it is up to us to seek it out, perhaps learn to use it, but most of all protect it.
Your friend and fellow member,
Warner Green