Fritz Leiber
Fritz Leiber Jr. entered the world on the 24th of December 1910, in Chicago, Illinois. He was born to actors Fritz Leiber and Virginia Bronson Leiber. His childhood unfolded within the orbit of itinerant Shakespearean companies. The family troupe operated under the name Fritz Leiber & Co. In 1928, he spent a year touring with his parents' company before enrolling at the University of Chicago. He graduated in 1932 with honors in psychology and physiology or biology. Before establishing himself as a writer, he worked as a lay reader at the General Theological Seminary in Chelsea, Manhattan from 1932 to 1933. He also pursued graduate studies in philosophy at the University of Chicago between 1933 and 1934 without taking a degree. During this period, he toured under the stage name Francis Lathrop intermittently with his parents' company. He appeared alongside his father in uncredited parts in George Cukor's Camille released in 1936. He also acted in James Whale's The Great Garrick in 1937 and William Dieterle's The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1939.
In 1936, Leiber initiated a brief but intense correspondence with H. P. Lovecraft. This exchange encouraged and influenced his literary development before Lovecraft died in March 1937. S. T. Joshi later identified Leiber's story The Sunken Land published in Unknown Worlds in February 1942 as the most accomplished early work based on Lovecraft's Mythos. Leiber wrote several essays on Lovecraft including A Literary Copernicus which appeared in 1949. The publication of that essay formed a key moment in the emergence of serious critical appreciation of Lovecraft's life and work. These letters and subsequent writings helped bridge the gap between pulp horror and academic criticism. Leiber remained heavily influenced by Lovecraft during the first two decades of his career alongside Robert Graves and John Webster.
Leiber introduced Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser in Two Sought Adventure published in the August 1939 edition of Unknown magazine edited by John W. Campbell. These characters were created in a series of letters exchanged by Leiber and his friend Harry Otto Fischer in the mid-1930s. Fafhrd was based on Leiber himself while the Mouser was modeled after Fischer. Their stories took place in and around the city of Lankhmar. This partnership became one of the progenitors of many tropes found in sword and sorcery fiction. Leiber credited with inventing the term sword and sorcery for this particular subgenre of epic fantasy. His first professional sale marked the beginning of a fifty-year span of writing about these unlikely heroes. The stories continued to evolve through collections like Swords Against Death and Swords and Deviltry released in 1970.
In 1958, The Big Time won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. This science fiction novel dealt with a war between factions called Snakes and Spiders changing history throughout the universe. The Wanderer published in 1964 also won the Hugo for Best Novel. It described an artificial planet materializing from hyperspace within Earth's orbit that shattered the moon into something resembling Saturn's rings. Leiber received the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1970 and 1971 for Ship of Shadows and Ill Met in Lankhmar respectively. Gonna Roll the Bones won both the Hugo Award for Best Novelette and the Nebula Award for Best Novelette in 1968. Our Lady of Darkness published in 1977 won the World Fantasy Award for Novel. He was named the second Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy by participants in the 1975 World Science Fiction Convention after J. R. R. Tolkien. The Science Fiction Writers of America made him its fifth SFWA Grand Master in 1981.
Jonquil Stephens died in 1969 precipitating Leiber's permanent relocation to San Francisco. Her death exacerbated his longstanding alcoholism after twelve years of fellowship in Alcoholics Anonymous. Harlan Ellison wrote of finding Leiber writing novels on a manual typewriter propped up over the sink in his apartment during the 1970s. Marc Laidlaw visited Leiber as a fan in 1976 and found him occupying one small room of a seedy San Francisco residence hotel. The squalor was relieved mainly by walls of books. Perhaps as a result of substance abuse, Leiber suffered periods of penury in the 1970s. He gradually regained sobriety over the next two decades though comorbid barbiturate abuse impeded this effort. In the last years of his life, royalty checks from TSR Inc ensured he lived comfortably. Our Lady of Darkness featured cities as breeding grounds for new types of elementals called paramentals summonable by megapolisomancy centering on the Transamerica Pyramid.
Leiber died a few weeks after a physical collapse while traveling from a science fiction convention in London Ontario with his second wife Margo Skinner. His cause of death was a stroke occurring in September 1992. He had married Skinner in 1992 having been friends for years. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted him in 2001 as its sixth class of two deceased and two living writers. The Horror Writers Association made him an inaugural winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1988 named in 1987. Some works by Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America members were published in Lin Carter's Flashing Swords anthologies. Leiber himself is credited with inventing the term sword and sorcery for the particular subgenre exemplified by his Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories. One new novel Swords Against the Shadowland by Robin Wayne Bailey appeared in 1998 following Leiber's death. Joanna Russ wrote stories about thief-assassin Alyx partly inspired by Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.
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Common questions
When and where was Fritz Leiber born?
Fritz Leiber Jr. entered the world on the 24th of December 1910, in Chicago, Illinois.
What is the significance of Fritz Leiber's correspondence with H. P. Lovecraft?
This exchange encouraged and influenced his literary development before Lovecraft died in March 1937. S. T. Joshi later identified Leiber's story The Sunken Land published in Unknown Worlds in February 1942 as the most accomplished early work based on Lovecraft's Mythos.
How did Fritz Leiber create the characters Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser?
These characters were created in a series of letters exchanged by Leiber and his friend Harry Otto Fischer in the mid-1930s. Fafhrd was based on Leiber himself while the Mouser was modeled after Fischer.
Which awards did Fritz Leiber win for his science fiction novels?
In 1958, The Big Time won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. The Wanderer published in 1964 also won the Hugo for Best Novel.
Why did Fritz Leiber relocate to San Francisco permanently?
Jonquil Stephens died in 1969 precipitating Leiber's permanent relocation to San Francisco. Her death exacerbated his longstanding alcoholism after twelve years of fellowship in Alcoholics Anonymous.
When and how did Fritz Leiber die?
His cause of death was a stroke occurring in September 1992. He died a few weeks after a physical collapse while traveling from a science fiction convention in London Ontario with his second wife Margo Skinner.