Leiber, Fritz

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Fritz Leiber

Personal

Born December 24, 1910, in Chicago, IL; died September 5, 1992; son of Fritz (a Shakespearean actor) and Virginia (a Shakespearean actress; maiden name, Bronson) Leiber; married Jonquil Stephens (a writer), January 16, 1936 (died September, 1969); married Margo Skinner, May 15, 1992 (died January 16, 1993); children: (first marriage) Justin. Education: University of Chicago, Ph.B., 1932; attended Episcopal General Theological Seminary.

Career

Lay reader at two Episcopalian churches in New Jersey, 1932-33; Shakespearean actor with father's company under name Francis Lathrop, 1934-36; Consolidated Book Publishers, Chicago, IL, editor, 1937-41; Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA, instructor in speech and drama, 1941-42; Douglas Aircraft Co., Santa Monica, CA, precision inspector, 1942-44; Science Digest, Chicago, associate editor, 1944-56; freelance writer, 1956-92. Lecturer at science-fiction and fantasy writing workshops, Clarion State College, 1968, 1969, 1970, and at San Francisco State University.

Member

Science Fiction Writers of America.

Awards, Honors

Guest of honor at World Science Fiction Convention, 1951, 1979; Hugo Award, World Science Fiction Convention, for best novel, 1958, for The Big Time, and 1965, for The Wanderer, for best novelette, 1968, for "Gonna Roll the Bones," for best novella, 1970, for "Ship of Shadows," and 1971, for "Ill Met in Lankhmar," and for best short story, 1975, for "Catch That Zeppelin"; Nebula Award, Science Fiction Writers of America, for best novelette, 1968, for "Gonna Roll the Bones," for best novella, 1971, for "Ill Met in Lankhmar," for best short story, 1975, for "Catch That Zeppelin," and Grand Master, 1981, for lifetime contribution to the genre; Ann Radcliffe Award, Count Dracula Society, 1970; Gandalf Award, World Science Fiction Convention, 1975; August Derleth Fantasy Award, 1976, for "Belsen Express"; World Fantasy Award, World Fantasy Convention, for best short fiction, 1976, for "Belsen Express," and for best novel, 1978, for Our Lady of Darkness; World Fantasy Life Award, World Fantasy Convention, 1976, for life achievement; Locus Award, best collection, 1986, for The Ghost Light; Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award, 1988.

Writings

HORROR NOVELS

Conjure Wife (originally published in Unknown Worlds, 1943), Twayne (New York, NY), 1953, published as Burn, Witch, Burn, Berkley (New York, NY), 1962.

The Sinful Ones (bound with Bulls, Blood, and Passion, by David Williams), Universal Publishing (New York, NY), 1953, published separately as You're All Alone, Ace Books (New York, NY), 1972.

Our Lady of Darkness, Berkley (New York, NY), 1978.

The Dealings of Daniel Kesserich: A Study of the Mass-Insanity at Smithville, illustrated by Jason Van Hollander, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1997.

Dark Ladies (contains Conjure Wife and Our Lady of Darkness), Tor Books (New York, NY), 1999.

SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY NOVELS

Gather, Darkness! (originally published in Astounding Stories, 1943), Pellegrini & Cudahy (New York, NY), 1950, new edition, Grosset (New York, NY), 1951.

(With James Blish and Fletcher Pratt) Witches Three, Twayne (New York, NY), 1952.

The Green Millennium, Abelard (New York, NY), 1953.

Destiny Times Three, Galaxy (New York, NY), 1957, (bound with Riding the Torch, by Norman Spinrad), Dell (New York, NY), 1978.

The Silver Eggheads (originally published in Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1958), Ballantine (New York, NY), 1962.

The Big Time [and] The Mind Spider, and Other Stories, Ace Books (New York, NY), 1961.

The Wanderer, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1964.

Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (adapted from film), Ballantine (New York, NY), 1966.

A Specter Is Haunting Texas, Walker (New York, NY), 1969.

Rime Isle, Whispers Press (Chapel Hill, NC), 1977.

STORY COLLECTIONS

Night's Black Agents, Arkham (Sauk City, WI), 1947, abridged edition published as Tales from Night's Black Agents, Ballantine, 1961.

The Girl with Hungry Eyes, and Other Stories, Avon (New York, NY), 1949.

Shadows with Eyes, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1962.

A Pail of Air, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1964.

Ships to the Stars (bound with The Million Year Hunt, by K. Bulmer), Ace Books (New York, NY), 1964.

The Night of the Wolf, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1966.

The Secret Songs, Hart-Davis (London, England), 1968.

Night Monsters, Ace Books (New York, NY), 1969, revised edition, Gollancz (London, England), 1974.

The Best of Fritz Leiber, edited by Angus Wells, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1974, revised edition, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1974.

The Book of Fritz Leiber, DAW Books (New York, NY), 1974.

The Second Book of Fritz Leiber, DAW Books (New York, NY), 1975.

The Worlds of Fritz Leiber, Ace Books (New York, NY), 1976.

The Mind Spider, and Other Stories, Ace Books (New York, NY), 1976.

The Change War, Gregg Press (Boston, MA), 1978, revised edition published as Changewar, Ace Books (New York, NY), 1983.

Heroes and Horrors, edited by Stuart D. Schiff, Whispers Press (Brown Mills, NJ), 1978.

Ship of Shadows, Gollancz, 1979, (bound with No Truce with Kings, by Poul Anderson), Tor Books (New York, NY), 1989.

The Ghost Light: Masterworks of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Berkley (New York, NY), 1984.

Kreativity for Kats and Other Feline Fantasies, Wildside Press (Newark, NJ), 1990.

Gummitch and Friends, D. M. Grant, 1992.

"FAFHRD AND THE GRAY MOUSER" SERIES

Two Sought Adventure: Exploits of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser (short stories), Gnome Press, 1957.

Swords against Wizardry (short stories), Ace Books (New York, NY), 1968.

Swords in the Mist (short stories), Ace Books (New York, NY), 1968.

The Swords of Lankhmar (novel), Ace Books (New York, NY), 1968.

Swords and Deviltry (novel), Ace Books, 1970.

Swords against Death (short stories), Ace Books (New York, NY), 1970.

Swords and Ice Magic (short stories), Gregg, 1977.

Rime Isle (short stories), Whispers Press, 1977.

Bazaar of the Bizarre (short stories), Donald Grant (West Kingston, RI), 1978.

The Knight and Knave of Swords (short stories), Morrow (New York, NY), 1988.

Swords' Masters (includes Swords against Wizardry, Swords of Lankhmar, and Swords and Ice Magic), Guild America (New York, NY), 1990.

Fafhrd & Me, edited by John Gregory Betancourt, Wildside Press (Newark, NJ), 1990.

Ill Met in Lankhmar (bound with The Fair in Emain Mach by Charles de Lint), Tor Books (New York, NY), 1990.

Lean Time in Lankhmar, White Wolf, 1996.

Fritz Leiber's Return to Lankhmar, White Wolf, 1997.

OTHER

The Demons of the Upper Air (verse), Roy A. Squires (Glendale, CA), 1969.

(With wife, Jonquil Leiber) Sonnets to Jonquil and All (verse), Roy A. Squires, 1978.

(Editor with Stuart D. Schiff) The World Fantasy Awards 2, Doubleday, 1980.

(Author of introduction) John Stanley, The Creature Feature Movie Guide; or, An A to Z Encyclopedia of Fantastic Films; or, Is There a Mad Doctor in the House?, illustrated by Ken Davis, Creatures at Large, 1981.

The Mystery of the Japanese Clock (short stories), Montgolfier Press (Santa Monica, CA), 1982.

In the Beginning, illustrated by Alicia Austin, Cheap Street (New Castle, VA), 1983.

Quicks around the Zodiac: A Farce, Cheap Street (New Castle, VA), 1983.

The Leiber Chronicles: Fifty Years of Fritz Leiber, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Dark Harvest, 1990.

(Author of introduction) Margo Skinner, As Green as Emeraude: Collected Poems of Margo Skinner, Dawn Heron Press, 1990.

Gonna Roll the Bones, illustrated by David Wiesner, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2004.

Work represented in numerous anthologies, including The Howard Phillips Lovecraft Memorial Symposium, edited by Steven Eisner, privately printed, 1958, Science Fiction Society, 1963; In Memoriam: Clark Ashton Smith, Mirage Press, 1963; The Conan Swordbook, edited by L. Sprague de Camp and George H. Scithers, Mirage Press, 1969; Essays Lovecraftian, edited by Darrell Schweitzer, T-K Graphics, 1976; Robert Bloch: A Bio-Bibliography, Graeme Flanagan (Canberra City), 1979. Contributor to periodicals, including Unknown, Fantastic, Weird Tales, and Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, sometimes under pseudonym Francis Lothrop.

Adaptations

Conjure Wife was adapted for film as Weird Woman, Universal, 1944, for television as Conjure Wife, National Broadcasting Corp. (NBC), 1960, and again for film as Burn, Witch, Burn, American International, 1962; Leiber's short stories "The Girl with the Hungry Eyes," 1970, and "The Dead Man," 1971, were adapted for the television series Night Gallery; The Big Time was adapted as a stage play; the "Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser" series was adapted as a board game by TSR Games.

Sidelights

Fritz Leiber was an award-winning writer of science fiction, fantasy, and horror who is best remembered for his vivid imagery and realistic characters. A critic for Publishers Weekly claimed that, "a literate and effective writer, Leiber is one of the two best fantasists to come out of the pulps—the other is Bradbury—but he remains under-appreciated." Norman L. Hills in the Dictionary of Literary Biography found that "Leiber is one of the most highly skilled stylists in science fiction, with a fine ear for language and the ability to write parodies effectively." "While other science fiction writers were producing adventures that spanned the galaxies," maintained Jeff Frane in his Fritz Leiber, "Leiber dealt with people, not in the mass but as individuals. It is perhaps this, his concern with and empathy for people as thinking, feeling, unique entities … that has made Fritz Leiber one of the best-loved creators of speculative fiction."

A Family in Theatre

Leiber was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 24, 1910. His father, Fritz Leiber, Sr., was a professional actor who appeared on the stage and in some forty films. His mother, Virginia Leiber, was a professional actress. When Leiber was a boy, he spent his winters with relatives while his parents toured the country with a theatrical company. Leiber noted the theatrical influence in his writing. Speaking to Darrell Schweitzer in Science Fiction Voices #1, he explained that "I do at times tend to fall into a kind of Shakespearean poetry in my writing. And also I tend to cast stories in a dramatic form. I visualize scenes in my stories as if they were scenes in a play on the stage." An essayist for the St. James Guide to Fantasy Writers noted that Leiber "was the son of an actor and had acting experience of his own, and many of his best stories give the impression that they are being intensely lived as well as deftly and fervently performed. He has the ability to inject a vivid realism into the most bizarre situations, whether they are developed with playful delight, gentle sentimentality or fierce intensity."

After earning a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Chicago in 1932, Leiber spent a year as a lay reader for two Episcopalian churches in New Jersey. At this time he also attended the General Theological Seminary in New York. He soon determined that a ministerial career was not for him and joined his father's theatrical company, touring the country for a year. Leiber also had small parts in the films Camille, produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1937, and Equinox. After marrying Jonquil Stephens, Leiber took an editorial job with Consolidated Book Publishers in Chicago, working on the Standard American Encyclopedia.

Leiber began his literary career by supplying tales to such fantasy and horror magazines as Weird Tales and Unknown Worlds. In his earliest tales, he placed traditional gothic elements in contemporary settings. His story "The Automatic Pistol," for instance, likens a gangster's weapon to a protective demon, while "The Hound" relates traffic sounds to the cries of werewolves. Still another tale, "The Girl with the Hungry Eyes," features an advertising image feeding on consumerism and human insecurities. In "Smoke Ghost," a man is haunted by a ghost born of the pollution and decay of the modern city.

Leiber's knack for modernizing horror staples was described by Stefan Dziemianowicz, writing in the St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers, as the ability to "make his horrors believable by making them seem natural outgrowths of their environment."

Strange, sudden discoveries are another staple of Leiber's short fiction. In "The Dream of Alfred Moreland," a man discovers that he is actually a figure in a cosmic chess match, while in "Mr. Bauer and the Atoms" a fellow learns that the atoms within his body hold the power of a nuclear weapon. In The Dealings of Daniel Kesserich, meanwhile, a man travels to comfort a recently widowed friend and discovers that all manner of seemingly unexplainable events have been caused by time travelers seeking to alter history.

Witchcraft Goes to College

In his novel Conjure Wife, Leiber operates from the premise that all women practice sorcery to assist their husbands. When one husband, a sociology professor, realizes his wife's magic powers and forces her to abandon them, his personal life becomes overwhelmed with problems, and he is eventually compelled to integrate an acceptance of the supernatural with the rational. Brian M. Stableford, writing in Science Fiction Writers, believed that in Conjure Wife, Leiber "brilliantly introduces witchcraft into a contemporary setting, not as a peripheral resurgence of something ancient but as an everyday domestic activity practiced widely and routinely by faculty wives struggling to procure the advancement of their husbands without their knowledge. The first half of the book, in which the elements of the plot are slowly but surely gathered together, is a masterpiece of suspense." According to Dziemianowicz, Leiber's Conjure Wife was "a model that influenced the entire generation of dark fantasists who followed."

An essayist for the St. James Guide to Science Fiction Writers ranked Leiber's novel The Big Time as a "major work in a series of time-travel stories." The story concerns a war fought by two groups of time-traveling warriors. Almost all of the action takes place in a recuperation center. "By limiting almost all the action to one room and employing dramatic techniques of staging and dialogue," the essayist for the St. James Guide to Science Fiction Writers wrote, "Leiber has almost created a science-fiction play, with first-person interior narration. Character differentiations are neatly provided by excellent parodies of the characters' differing diction and vocabulary (for example, Elizabethan and Greek dramatic styles)."

Introduces Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser

Although Leiber wrote a wide variety of science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories, he was best known for his sword and sorcery adventures featuring the two swashbuckling characters Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. These adventures, written over a period of some forty years, are noted for their witty and colorful language, fast-paced plots, tongue-in-cheek humor, and eroticism. Leiber, writing in the author's note to The Swords of Lankhmar, described the pair of adventurers as "rogues through and through, though each has in him a lot of humanity and at least a diamond chip of the spirit of true adventure. They drink, they feast, they wench, they brawl, they steal, they gamble, and surely they hire out their swords to powers that are only a shade better, if that, than the villains."

Fafhrd, a tall, brawny warrior from the Cold Waste, and the Gray Mouser, a small, quick-moving thief, together seek adventure, romance, and treasure in the world of Nehwon, and invariably encounter crafty wizards, beautiful women, dark horrors, and plenty of sword-wielding adversaries. "In story after story," Lin Carter said of the series in his Imaginary Worlds, "[Leiber] has captained us on a voyage of exploration and discovery through the magical lands where his fascinating pair of delicious rogues dwell." "These adventure fantasies," Diana Waggoner wrote in The Hills of Faraway, "are distinguished by a sophisticated style and an excellent sense of humor." Norman L. Hills, writing in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, stated: "In the series, the world of Nehwon and the city of Lankhmar are made real through richly detailed description and the almost baroque atmosphere of a decadent and strangely civilized barbarism. The stylistic influences of Clark Ashton Smith and E. R. Eddison are evident as is the rich description of Jacobean drama. The characterizations of the tall, northern barbarian and the small, city-bred thief are complex blends of love, pity, terror, and humor; in short, they are made to live as fascinating people."

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser grew out of a correspondence between Leiber and his friend Harry Fisher during the 1930s. "Harry and I began to create imaginary worlds," Leiber recalled in an inter view with Darrell Schweitzer for Science Fiction Voices #1, "solely for the purpose of writing about them in our letters…. One of the imaginary worlds originally invented by Harry was the world of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser." Leiber's son, Justin Leiber, wrote in Starship that the two characters were loosely based on his father (as Fafhrd) and Fisher (as the Gray Mouser). "When I was a kid," Justin remembered, "both my mother Jonquil and I called Fritz 'Faf' or 'Fafhrd' more than anything else." Leiber and Fisher also invented the pair's home base, the city of Lankhmar, a treacherous, labyrinthine metropolis of evil sorcerers, corrupt priests, and numerous back-alley thieves (organized into a thieves' guild, of course), widely noted for its easy accommodation of nefarious activity. Their world of Nehwon, vaguely reminiscent of both ancient Rome and medieval Europe, is thought by its inhabitants to be contained within a bubble of air floating in a cosmic sea. Perhaps it is, since Nehwon is a world in which magic works and magical events are commonplace.

The first "Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser" story, written in 1937, was read and commented on by the late horror story writer H. P. Lovecraft. Leiber had written to Lovecraft after reading and admiring some of his stories, and the two men began a regular correspondence. When Leiber mentioned that he also wrote, Lovecraft asked to see one of his stories. After reading it, Lovecraft circulated the story among several editors and introduced Leiber to such writers as Robert Bloch and August Derleth. In his interview with Schweitzer, Leiber admitted that Lovecraft "had a big effect on my writing and continues to do so."

If you enjoy the works of Fritz Leiber

If you enjoy the works of Fritz Leiber, you may also want to check out the following books:

David Gemmell, Morningstar, 1993.

Michael Moorcock, Elric: Song of the Black Sword, 1995.

Nina Kiriki Hoffman, A Fistful of Sky, 2002.

Lovecraft's influence can particularly be seen in Leiber's novel Our Lady of Darkness, wherein the hero discovers that San Francisco is populated by demons who feed off the city's energy. Raymond L. Hough, writing in Library Journal, noted that in Our Lady of Darkness Leiber, like Lovecraft, uses "increasingly fantastic events [to] slowly reveal a brooding, and unnatural horror." In other ways, Leiber modified the standard elements of a Lovecraftian horror story. He set the story in urban California, for example, rather than in Lovecraft's inevitable rural New England. A Lovecraft-style ancient curse is blended with the ideas of modern psychology. "Lovecraft fans will recognize the debt," Hough observed, "but they'll enjoy the differences too." Stableford, in an article for Supernatural Fiction Writers, noted the similarities between Leiber and his novel's protagonist: "The hero of the novel, a pulp writer named Franz Westen, lives in an apartment building in San Francisco under circumstances very similar to those under which Leiber was living during 1976." Algis Budrys of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction called Our Lady of Darkness "a major work of fantasy, skillfully created and unimaginably imagined…. There are things in this book that no one has ever thought of before."

Describing Leiber's place in contemporary science fiction, Budrys wrote: "Leiber is one of the best science fiction writers in the world. [He is] one SF writer who has somehow made the Hugo and the Nebula [Awards] seem inadequate." Budrys believed that Leiber's place belonged in mainstream literature. "Leiber is a giant," he maintained, "[a] figure of stature in 20th century literature."

Biographical and Critical Sources

BOOKS

Byfield, Bruce, Witches of the Mind: A Critical Study of Fritz Leiber, Necronomicon Press (West Warwick, RI), 1991.

Carter, Lin, Imaginary Worlds, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1973.

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 25, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1983.

Contemporary Novelists, 5th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1991.

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 8: Twentieth-Century American Science Fiction Writers, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1981.

Frane, Jeff, Fritz Leiber, Starmont House (Mercer Island, WA), 1980.

Leiber, Fritz, The Swords of Lankhmar, Ace Books (New York, NY), 1968.

Lewis, Al, Fritz Leiber: A Bibliography, Mercury Press, 1969.

Merril, Judith, Fritz Leiber, Mercury Press, 1969.

Morgan, Chris, Fritz Leiber: A Bibliography, 1934-1979, Morgenstern, 1979.

Moscowitz, Sam, Seekers of Tomorrow, World Publishing (New York, NY), 1966.

Platt, Charles, Dream Makers: Volume II, Berkley (New York, NY), 1983.

Reginald, Robert, Xenograffiti: Essays in Fantastic Literature, Borgo Press (San Bernardino, CA), 1996.

St. James Guide to Fantasy Writers, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1996.

St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1998.

St. James Guide to Science Fiction Writers, 4th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1996.

Schweitzer, Darrell, Science Fiction Voices #1, Borgo Press (San Bernardino, CA), 1979.

Science Fiction Writers, Scribner (New York, NY), 1982.

Staicar, Tom, Fritz Leiber, Frederick Ungar (New York, NY), 1983.

Stephensen-Payne, Phil, and Gordon Benson, Jr., Fritz Leiber: Sardonic Swordsman—A Working Bibliography, Galactic Central Publications (Leeds, England), 1990.

Supernatural Fiction Writers, Volume 2, Scribner (New York, NY), 1985.

Szumskyj, Ben and S. T. Joshi, editors, Fritz Leiber and H. P. Lovecraft: Writers of the Dark, Wildside Press, 2003.

Tucker, James, and Erin McKee, editors, Touchstone: A Tribute to Fritz Leiber and Ray Bradbury, Mysterious Stranger Press (Salt Lake City, UT), 1978.

Waggoner, Diana, The Hills of Faraway: A Guide to Fantasy, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1978.

Walker, Paul, Speaking of Science Fiction: The Paul Walker Interviews, Luna, 1978.

PERIODICALS

Algol, summer/fall, 1978, Jim Purviance, interview with Leiber, pp. 23-28.

Alien Critic, May, 1973, Paul Walker, interview with Leiber, pp. 10-15.

Amazing Stories, October, 1951; September, 1976, Darrell Schweitzer, interview with Leiber, pp. 59-75.

Amra, October, 1963, Fritz Leiber, "Fafhrd and Me."

Analog, May, 1951; April 27, 1981, Tom Easton, review of The Sinful Ones, p. 158; December, 1984, Tom Easton, review of The Ghost Light, p. 147; August, 1989, Tom Easton, review of The Knight and Knave of Swords, p. 179; October, 1991, Tom Easton, review of Fafhrd and Me, p. 168; May, 1997, Tom Easton, review of The Dealings of Daniel Kesserich, p. 149.

Anduril, number 6, 1976.

Booklist, February 1, 1977, review of Our Lady of Darkness, p. 794; April 15, 1981, review of Gather, Darkness, p. 1140; February 1, 1997, Ray Olson, review of The Dealings of Daniel Kesserich, p. 929.

Books and Bookmen, February, 1970.

Extrapolation, Volume 40, number 3, 1999, Gerald Adair, "A Specter Is Haunting Fritz Leiber: The Influence of M. R. James on 'The Pale Brown Thing,'" pp. 224-232.

Fantastic Stories, February, 1970.

Fantasy Commentator, summer, 2004, special Fritz Leiber issue.

Fantasy Crossroads, Number 8, 1976, Paul C. Allen, "Of Sword and Sorcery: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser."

Fantasy Review, March, 1984, review of Our Lady of Darkness, p. 21.

Future Science Fiction, November, 1950.

Galaxy, May, 1954.

Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Volume 12, number 4, 2002, Gerald M. Adair, "Illuminating the Ghost Light: Final Acts in the Theater of Fritz Leiber," pp. 364-381.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 1950, review of Gather, Darkness, p. 76.; December 1, 1976, review of Our Lady of Darkness, p. 1281.

Kliatt, spring, 1978, review of Our Lady of Darkness, p. 12.

Lan's Lantern, July, 1992, George Laskowski, "Fritz Leiber: A Bibliography," pp. 8-13, and John Thiel, "Fritz Leiber: A Man of Variety," p. 18.

Library Journal, February 15, 1977, Raymond L. Hough, review of Our Lady of Darkness, p. 517; November 15, 1992, review of Gather, Darkness, p. 112; February 15, 1997, review of The Dealings of Daniel Kesserich, p. 165.

Locus, April, 1993.

Luna Monthly, July, 1969.

Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March, 1965, review of A Pail of Air, p. 53; November, 1966, review of Tarzan and the Valley of Gold, p. 58; summer, 1968, review of Swords of Lankhmar, p. 34; September, 1968; July, 1969, special Fritz Leiber issue; November, 1969, review of A Specter Is Haunting Texas, p. 49; summer, 1978, review of Our Lady of Darkness, p. 30; September, 1978; February, 1979, review of Rime Isle, p. 62.

Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine, winter, 1992, Darrell Schweitzer, "An Interview with Fritz Leiber," pp. 7-10.

Mythlore, autumn, 1990, Bruce Byfield, "A Literary Newton: A Suggestion for a Critical Appraisal of Fritz Leiber," pp. 48-54; summer, 1991, Bruce Byfield, "Sister Picture of Dorian Gray: The Image of the Female in Fritz Leiber's Conjure Wife," pp. 24-28.

New Statesman, June 6, 1969.

New Worlds, March, 1969.

New York Herald Tribune Book Review, December 21, 1952.

New York Review of Science Fiction, May, 2004, James Killus, "Sleeping in Fritz Leiber's Bed," pp. 1, 8-11.

New York Times Book Review, April 14, 1974.

Observer (London, England), November 9, 1969.

Publishers Weekly, November 22, 1976, review of Our Lady of Darkness, p. 45; February 16, 1990, review of The Leiber Chronicles, p. 71; February 22, 1993, review of Gummitch and Friends, p. 85; October 11, 2004, review of Gonna Roll the Bones, p. 80.

Punch, November 13, 1968.

Riverside Quarterly, August, 1991, Justin Leiber, "Fritz Leiber: Swordsman and Philosopher. Part 1: Heroic Artisan," pp. 236-240; August, 1992, Justin Leiber, "Fritz Leiber: Swordsman and Philosopher, Part Two, Philosophical Dramatizations," pp. 36-44.

San Francisco Magazine, December, 1988, Harry Moss, "SF's Dean of Sci-Fi: A Birthday Visit with Fritz Leiber, the Man Who Helped Sword and Sorcery Literature," p. 25.

Saturday Review, April 1, 1950, review of Gather, Darkness, p. 38; January 10, 1953.

Science Fiction Chronicle, November, 1991; February, 1996.

Science Fiction Eye, winter, 1991, Marc Laidlaw, "From Lankhmar to the Tenderloin: Two Early Pilgrimages to Fritz Leiber," pp. 79-83.

Science Fiction Review, August, 1970; February, 1978; September/October, 1978.

Starlog, June, 1984, C. J. Henderson, interview with Leiber, pp. 54-58, 63.

Starship, summer, 1979.

Studies in American Humor, Volume 3, number 3, 1996, B. Lovett-Graff, "Parodying the Theater of Religion in the Fantasy of Fritz Leiber," pp. 66-81.

Times (London, England), April 26, 1990.

Times Literary Supplement, June 15, 1967; January 8, 1970; May 31, 1974.

Venture Science Fiction, August, 1969.

Voice of Youth Advocates, April, 1985, review of The Ghost Light, p. 55; August, 1989, review of Ship of Shadows, p. 162; February, 1992, review of Conjure Wife/Our Lady of Darkness, p. 384; August, 1997, review of The Dealings of Daniel Kesserich, p. 194.

Washington Post Book World, March 5, 1978, review of Night's Black Agents, p. F2; July 27, 1980, review of Heroes and Horrors, p. 12; April 22, 1984, review of The Ghost Light, p. 13; July 29, 1984, review of Conjure Wife, p. 15; January 29, 1989, review of The Knight and Knave of Swords, p. 6; August 25, 1991, review of Our Lady of Darkness, p. 12; February 25, 1996, review of The Leiber Chronicles, p. 8; April 28, 1996, review of Ill Met in Lankhmar, p. 16, and review of Lean Times in Lankhmar, p. 44; February 23, 1997, review of The Dealings of Daniel Kesserich, p. 11; October 24, 2004, Elizabeth Ward, review of Gonna Roll the Bones, p. 11.

ONLINE

A Site about Fritz Leiber, http://www.lankhmar.demon.co.uk/ (May 3, 2005).

Gothic Press, http://www.gothicpress.com/leiber/ (May 3, 2005), Gary William Crawford, "Fritz Leiber: A Database."

MaisonNeuve.org, http://www.maisonneuve.org/ (January 15, 2005), Michel Basilieres, "Corresponding with the Fantastic: The Sorcery of Fritz Leiber."

SF Reviews Online, http://www.sfreviews.com/ (August 19, 2002), review of The Big Time.