Brian Murphy and I were corresponding the other day, discussing his forthcoming book, Flame and Crimson. He mentioned that Fritz Leiber read H. Rider Haggard; that, in fact, Leiber was reading HRH during the very period that Fritz and his friend, Harry Fischer, were creating Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

Since I had omitted mentioning Leiber in my “Forefathers” post on Haggard for the very reason that I couldn’t find any Haggard-Leiber connection online, I quickly asked what Brian’s source was for this info. He replied that it could be found in Leiber’s “Fafhrd and Me” essay, which, in Murphy’s case, he read in the de Camp-edited Amra anthology, The Spell of Conan.

Talk about a facepalm moment. I’ve owned The Spell of Conan since I was eleven years old. It holds the same place in my literary history as Gygax’s “Appendix N” holds for Jeffro Johnson and many other OSR D&D guys out there. It was my gateway to a vast panorama of vintage, quality fantasy fiction. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I first read Leiber’s fiction by way of an Ace box set. However, I read my first Leiber prose in his biographical essay, “Fafhrd and Me”, which is contained in The Spell of Conan. Reading Leiber in that volume is what prompted me to request “some Leiber” for Christmas.

Needless to say, I went back and reread “Fafhrd and Me” for the twentieth time. Brian was correct. Leiber mentions Haggard more than once. I can only explain my not remembering Leiber’s statements by the fact that I hadn’t read the essay since I’d really gotten into reading HRH, so those Haggardian shout-outs didn’t stick in my mind. By the way, the entire piece is fascinating and I need to write up a thorough review of it at some point.

So, here are the Leiber quotes pertaining to Haggard:

“Harry [Fischer] and I first met in 1930. We had much in common: a great interest in fantasy and romantic literature such as the writings of H. Rider Haggard…”
“At this time I was variously addressing Harry in my letters as Loki (or just Lok), Macumazahn, and Jurgen, indicating that there had been some recent reading or rereading of Norse myth, Haggard and Cabell.”

Regarding the first quote, it’s fairly self-explanatory. Haggard’s fiction was of “great interest” to Leiber (and Fischer) around 1930. The second quote—circa 1933-1934—is more interesting. Not only does it indicate that Fritz was “rereading” HRH during the exact period when he and Fischer were creating Fafhrd, the Mouser and Nehwon, but Leiber actually used the Zulu nickname for Allan Quatermain—”Macumazahn”—as a nickname for Fischer. Haggard was definitely occupying some space in Leiber’s mind during that early dawn of Nehwon.

Leiber asserted numerous times that he really didn’t consider Fafhrd to be a “regulation hero”. The same can be said of Allan Quatermain, who isn’t stereotypically heroic beyond possessing more than his share of cold courage. In fact, several of Haggard’s more prominent protagonists are not heroes by current regulatory guidelines. Other than pointing out that, I can’t say much more in regard to any influence that Haggard had on Fafhrd or the Mouser.

However, there is another area in which HRH might’ve had some influence: world-building. As David Hardy pointed out, Haggard was the “Creator of Lost Worlds”. Time and again, HRH would create—out of whole cloth, to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the tale—entire outre and outlandish societies hidden in some lost corner of the globe. And he would make the reader believe in them, at least until the tale was told. That is what writers of sword and sorcery such as Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith and Fritz Leiber also did. It’s what they were basically required to do in order to create tales of S&S. And H. Rider Haggard is the one who showed them—and Forefathers like Doyle, ERB and Merritt—how it was done.