American writer (1910-1992). Full name: Fritz Reuter Leiber, Jr. Born in
Chicago, Leiber's father was a noted
Shakespearean actor who appeared in several
movies. He received his Bachelor of Philosophy degree in
biological sciences from the
University of Chicago and attended the
Episcopal General Theological Seminary.
Leiber worked as an
Episcopal minister, an
actor (he has small roles in
George Cukor's "
Camille" in 1936 with
Greta Garbo and
James Whale's "
The Great Garrick" in 1937 with
Olivia de Havilland,
Lionel Atwill, and
Lana Turner), a
book editor, a
speech and
drama instructor, and a
precision inspector for
Douglas Air Craft Company while writing a number of
short stories, including "
Smoke Ghost" and several of his
fantasy tales of
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. (In fact, Leiber is believed to be the first person to tag
heroic fantasy with the term "
swords and sorcery") He published his first novel, "
Conjure Wife," in 1944 as a
serial in a magazine called "
Unknown."
Leiber's first published book arrived in 1947. "
Night's Black Agents" was a collection of his short stories published by
August Derleth's
Arkham House. After "
You're All Alone" was cut down to a
novella in 1950, then padded back out to
novel-length with the addition of someone else's
soft porn, he got "Conjure Wife," "
The Green Millennium," and "
Gather Darkness" published in 1953, followed by "
Destiny Times Three" and "
Two Sought Adventure" in 1957. In 1958, Leiber left his job as associate editor of "
Science Digest" to become a full-time writer. The books that followed over the next few years included "
The Silver Eggheads," "
The Big Time," "
The Wanderer," and "
A Spectre is Haunting Texas." He also wrote a lot of stories that were
cat-focused, particularly the stories that became known as his "
Gummitch" stories.
His wife Jonquil died in 1969 after mixing
alcohol and
sleeping pills, and Leiber spent the next several years
drunk. When he finally (mostly) kicked the
booze and returned to
writing, his first novel was one of his best -- the semi-
autobiographical dark fantasy "
Our Lady of Darkness." He wrote novels less often after that, and the stories he produced were often darker and more autobiographical than they'd been in previous decades. Thanks to his
grittier, more
adult attitudes toward heroic fantasy, his
Fafhrd and
Gray Mouser stories continued to grow in
popularity, and Leiber was pleased to continue to write them, leading up to the publication of "
The Knight and Knave of Swords" in 1988. (Little known fact: Fafhrd was actually based on Leiber himself, while the Gray Mouser was based on Leiber's friend
Harry Fischer)
Leiber married Margo Skinner, an old friend who had recently been diagnosed with cancer, in 1992. But he died just four months later after collapsing from
exhaustion while on a cross-country trip by
train.
Some research from http://www.lankhmar.demon.co.uk/