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11/4/2009 10:21:09 AM
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Byron Bailey
Posts 2413
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He wrote "Smoke Ghost." He wrote Conjure Wife and Our Lady of Darkness. He wrote the best cat fantasy story ever. He wrote a bunch of stories involving this barbarian and scrawny lurker of the shadows. Beevis and Butthead? Fafrd and Graymouser? He wrote of the change war: The Big Time. He was pen pals with H. P. Lovecraft. He did it all.
Discuss Fritz Leiber or smoke ghost might get you. If it's not smoke ghost, Fafrd or Gummitch.
edited by Byron Bailey on 11/4/2009
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Yes, I do weigh 800 pounds, but I'm not a gorilla. I'm just a grossly obese bonobo. Really.
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11/4/2009 10:45:35 AM
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John Thiel
Posts 1462
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I got a letter from him about his career back when the reviewer for my fanzine did a review of TWO SOUGHT ADVENTURE. I used to send copies of my fanzine to authors whose books were reviewed and got an occasional answer. Fritz's letter said he was just as lusty as Fafhrd.
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Surprising Stories has a slush pile.
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11/4/2009 11:23:28 AM
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ogresan
Posts 6
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Fritz Leiber was one of those writers who taught me just how good sf/f could be. And even though we have some extremely fine writers working today, not many could match him for pure versatility. I know that the field was less fragmented in his time and working both the sf and fantasy sides of the street was more common, but few did it with more grace.
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11/4/2009 12:25:07 PM
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karlb
Posts 380
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Ogresan, that was well put.
I tried to come up with a list of Leiber stories that really resonated with me, and it starts with:
"The Automatic Pistol," "Smoke Ghost," "Sanity" (!!! - truly great), "The Man Who Never Grew Young," "The Girl with the Hungry Eyes," "Coming Attraction" (!!!! - even greater), "You're All Alone," "Poor Superman," "Nice Girl with Five Husbands," "A Pail of Air" (unbelievable but charming), "A Bad Day for Sales," "Bullet With His Name, "A Deskful of Girls," "Rump-Titty-Titty-Tum-TAH-Tee," "Space-Time for Springers," "Damnation Morning," "Our Saucer Vacation" (obscure but delightful pastiche of the Heinlein juveniles), "Mariana," "When the Sea-King's Away," "The 64-Square Madhouse," "A Bit of the Dark World" (despite some flaws, IMO, a particular favorite), "The Creature from Cleveland Depths," "The Man Who Made Friends with Electricity," "The Secret Songs," "237 Talking Statues, Etc.", "Myths My Great-Granddaughter Taught Me," "Four Ghosts in Hamlet," "The Good New Days," "Gonna Roll the Bones," "Ship of Shadows," "America the Beautiful," "Belsen Express," "Catch That Zeppelin!"
That's some lineup and I've barely scratched the surface.
Anybody ever see a low budget horror film (circa 1970) called Equinox? Leiber had a part in that. Very uneven movie - pretty amateurish but a few good moments IIRC.
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11/4/2009 12:42:56 PM
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Kevin C.
Posts 1088
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The The Automatic Pistol is a favorite. Came across it just a few years ago and liked it enough that I've read it several times since.
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11/4/2009 12:54:24 PM
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Alex
Posts 942
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Ah, the inventor of Sword and Sorcery. I never met a Leiber tale that I didn't love.
I, hopefully, have read everything he ever wrote.
One of my all time favorite shorts is "Gonna Roll the Bones." The imagery is so vivid, it's like having a little movie running in my head.
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Because, anything worth doing is worth overdoing
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11/4/2009 1:17:49 PM
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Byron Bailey
Posts 2413
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Ah, the inventor of Sword and Sorcery.
Did he invent the term or with the likes of Robert E. Howard preceding him, are you saying he invented the genre?
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Yes, I do weigh 800 pounds, but I'm not a gorilla. I'm just a grossly obese bonobo. Really.
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11/4/2009 7:15:39 PM
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John Thiel
Posts 1462
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Leiber was in THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, too, with Charles Laughton.
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Surprising Stories has a slush pile.
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11/4/2009 7:19:38 PM
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Dave_Truesdale
Posts 417
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Leiber was in THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, too, with Charles Laughton.
Was that our Fritz Leiber, John, or Leiber, Sr.? You're probably right, but wasn't his father an actor too?
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"When any category of science fiction writing has become dull and repetitive, there is always a brilliant story waiting to be written by giving up the assumptions that made the story easy to write." --Damon Knight
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11/4/2009 8:10:18 PM
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karlb
Posts 380
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Imdb says it was Leiber Sr.
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11/5/2009 1:15:44 PM
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John Thiel
Posts 1462
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Oh, those juniors and seniors. I have the same trouble with Lon Chaney.
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Surprising Stories has a slush pile.
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11/6/2009 10:01:22 AM
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jimbraiden
Posts 1755
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Leiber’s collection Ghost Light contains a long and very interesting biographical essay in which he mentions appearing in the Greta Garbo version of Camille in the late 30’s.
And I am sure I remember him mentioning doing a couple of bit parts in B movies in the 60’s or 70’a..
He was also the only author ever to be given permission by the Burrough's estate to write a Tarzan novel.
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11/6/2009 1:23:56 PM
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gdozois
Posts 3110
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Leiber invented the modern Urban Horror story with "Smoke Ghost," something usually attributed to much-later work of Stephen King (although, to his credit, King himself has admitted that Leiber was first, and an inspiration). Leiber certainly didn't invent the sword & sorcery genre, Robert E. Howard was there first, but he did bring it to a height of sophistication and elegance which has influenced almost all the S&S work since (being clearly the biggest influence on the recent "Mister Fitz" stories of Garth Nix, for instance, as well as on many others), and, yes, he did name it, coining the term "Sword & Sorcery." I've seen a copy of the very fanzine in which he did it, in the letter-column, commenting, if I remember correctly, on some work of Poul Anderson's. His best science fiction work is probably the novel THE BIG TIME, although I like all of his Change War stories, and, in fact, almost everything he wrote was at the very least worth reading.
I've read his Tarzan novel, and a fat, peculiar, and fanciful Tarzan novel it is too, heavily influenced by the James Bond craze that was then going on. It too is well worth reading, although I kind of regret that he didn't take the considerable amount of time he put into writing a Tarzan novel and sink it into something of his own instead.
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11/6/2009 1:47:22 PM
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nanday
Posts 9
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Fritz Leiber, Jr. did go out for a few bit parts in the movies, but it was his father who was a major character actor in the late 1930s and through the 1940s. Leiber, Jr. went out for acting largely because his parents were both actors. It was their idea of a steady job, but he was already more interested in writing when he started auditioning for parts.
Anyway, Leiber, Jr. had an immense handicap for an actor. At 6' 4" he was extremely tall for someone of his generation. In an autobiographical essay, he talks about having to be positioned behind a table, standing in a hole, so he didn't tower over the leading actor. Doing that sort of thing all the time would have been a major pain for directors.
That said, Leiber, Jr. did have a voice trained for the stage. I remember having breakfast with him and his second wife at Norwescon in the early 1990s. The rest of us at the table were all trying, very ineffectually, to get a waiter's attention. When we all failed, he drew himself up and boomed, "CAN WE GET SOME SERVICE, PLEASE?" in a voice that cut over all the conversations around us. There was a sudden silence, and within twenty seconds, a waiter was beside him, looking very nervous.
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11/6/2009 9:15:47 PM
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Marian
Posts 2178
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I found the list of movies his father was in rather impressive, at least 60. Now that's a career! http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0500021/
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"Know the truth and the truth shall make you odd."
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11/6/2009 9:21:55 PM
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pc
Posts 1452
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Very cool, Nanday. Great story.
Wish I'd known the man.
Byron mentions,
Our Lady of Darkness
Got to put in a good word for my old schoolmate David Wilson, who helped edit some of Leiber's later work.
After reading 'Lady' I took one lunch break, while making deliveries in San Francisco, and drove up to Corona Heights Park to see the locale for myself. Alas, no spooks in sight, brown or otherwise.
As I'd suspected, that book's characters are based upon some very colorful real-life San Franciscans. 
.
edited by pc on 11/6/2009
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The ends do not justify the means. Rather, the means build the ends.
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11/6/2009 9:27:13 PM
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gdozois
Posts 3110
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Leiber drew upon his immediate surroundings extensively in his later work. OUR LADY OF DARKNESS (also published as THE PALE BROWN THING) was inspired by the view from the roof of the building he was living in at the time, and he uses his apartment, described in detail, in other stories such as "The Button Molder," so it wouldn't surprise me that he used people he knew from the neighborhood as characters as well. (The protagonist of many stories also comes to seem suspiciously like Fritz himself, in similar circumstances to his real-life circumstances, at about the same time.)
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11/7/2009 3:30:35 PM
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jimbraiden
Posts 1755
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Getting a waiter's attention.
I was once, many years ago, in a very posh restaurant in London and trying without any success to get the attention of the waiter.
An elderly gentleman at the table next to us noted my problem and leant across.
"Throw your glass on the floor, " he said.
"What?"
"Throw your glass on the floor."
I did.
The glass shattered and instantly I had half a dozen waiters converging on me.
The gentleman winked at me.
"Never fails."
And he was right.
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11/10/2009 12:55:17 AM
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Dario
Posts 97
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There was nobody like Leiber. What a giant! I read my first Fafhrd and Gray Mouser story when I was about 15, have all the volumes, and re-read them with some regularity. And CONJURE WIFE was one of the best urban supernatural/horror stories I've ever read. But for me the Newhon stories are the very best of all, his crowning achievment. The man wrote and published for what, 60 years, and his level of craft was astonishing.
Years ago, at a con, I saw a copy of the *typescript* for RIME ISLE for sale, at $800. I could just about have afforded it then. I often regret not having bought it, just to feel that closeness with one of my heroes, and give a good home to such a unique piece of his work.
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11/10/2009 12:58:38 AM
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Dario
Posts 97
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There was nobody like Leiber. What a giant! I read my first Fafhrd and Gray Mouser story when I was about 15, have all the volumes, and re-read them with some regularity. And CONJURE WIFE was one of the best urban supernatural/horror stories I've ever read. But for me the Newhon stories are the very best of all, his crowning achievment. The man wrote and published for what, 60 years, and his level of craft was astonishing.
Years ago, at a con, I saw a copy of the *typescript* for RIME ISLE for sale, at $800. I could just about have afforded it then. I often regret not having bought it, just to feel that closeness with one of my heroes, and give a good home to such a unique piece of his work.
Gardner, I've not read THE BIG TIME or the Tarzan novel -- thanks for mentioning them.
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