Fritz Leiber's Biography

Fritz Reuter Leiber Jr. (December 24, 1910 - september 5,
1992) was an influential American writer of fantasy and

(Fafhrd was based on Leiber himself and the Mouser on his
friend Harry Fischer.) Although in many ways the stories now

science fiction.

appear somewhat cliched, these stories were, in fact, the
progenitors of many of the tropes of the sword and sorcery

To describe him as popular, amongst both fans and his fellow
writers, might be an understatement: his science fiction

genre. It has been noted that Terry Pratchett's city of
Ankh-Morpork bears more than a passing resemblance to

novels The Big Time (1958) and The Wanderer (1965) and the
short stories "Gonna Roll them Bones" (1967), about a

Lankhmar.

gambler playing dice with Death, and "Ship of Shadows"
(1970) all won Hugo awards; "Bones" also won a Nebula

Leiber had married Jonquil Stephens on January 16, 1936, and
their son Justin Fritz Leiber was born in 1938. Jonquil's

award.

death in 1969 precipitated a three year bout of alcoholism,
but he then returned to his original form with a fantasy

As the child of two Shakespeareanan actors - Fritz Sr. (see
below) and Virginia (nee Bronson) - he showed a great

novel set in modern-day San Francisco, Our Lady of Darkness
- serialised in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction

fascination with the stage, from short stories featuring
travelling Shakespearean companies such as "No Great Magic"

as "The Pale Brown Thing" (1975) - in which cities were the
breeding grounds for new types of elementals, summonable by

and "Four Ghosts in Hamlet", to the actor/producer
protagonist of the novel A Specter is Haunting Texas. An

the dark art of megalopolisomancy. The short parallel worlds
story "Catch that Zeppelin!" (1975) added yet another Nebula

interesting feature of The Big Time is that though it is
about a war between two factions changing and rechanging

and Hugo award to his collection.

history throughout the Universe, all the action takes place
in a small bubble of isolated space-time, about the size of

Fans awarded him the Gandalf (Grand Master) award at the
World Science Fiction Convention in 1975, and in 1981 the

a theatrical stage, with only a handful of characters.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America voted him the
recipient of their Grand Master award.

Among his most famous works are the Fafhrd and the Gray
Mouser stories, written over a span of 50 years. The first

He wrote a short autobiography, which can be found in the

of these, "Two Sought Adventure", appeared in Unknown in
1939. They are concerned with an unlikely pair of heroes,

collection The Ghost Light (1984).

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, who are found in and around the
fascinating city of Lankhmar, a fertile hunting ground.

He also acted in a few films, once with his father in RKO's
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939).