Fritz Leiber would have turned one hundred and ten today. His work deserves celebration and the man himself warrants our remembrance. In this blog entry, I'll be looking at the works of Leiber that have been largely forgotten--if known about at all--by Leiber fans of the present day.

I'm speaking here primarily of Fritz the Scholar and Critic. From early on, Leiber read deeply and thought deeply and wrote deeply about SFF literature, especially the fantasy/horror side of the equation. Not only that, but he was also fairly well-versed in classic "non-genre" fiction, not to mention being immersed in the Shakespearean canon from the time he could talk.

It was in his guise of Scholar and Critic that I first read Leiber. I'd purchased The Spell of Conan and Fritz had several contributions within that landmark anthology. In "Fafhrd and Me", he referenced numerous authors and novels I'd never heard of, such as E.R. Eddison and Salammbo. What he wrote about Faf and the Mouser prompted me to ask my mom to buy me some F&tGM books, which she did that next Christmas. Leiber's "John Carter: Sword of Theosophy" introduced me to the influence of Theosophy on twentieth century SFF. So, I was aware of, and appreciated, the scholar/critic side of Fritz from the get-go.

The Spell of Conan was a "best of" anthology with entries drawn from the pages of Amra. Fritz's letters and essays appeared frequently in Amra for several years, giving him a dependable platform from which to discuss many topics, especially sword and sorcery.

One of Leiber's letters to Amra would lead to a genre-defining moment. Michael Moorcock sent a letter to Amra wondering what the genre that he and Leiber wrote fiction in should be called. Fritz's letter in reply was titled, "On What We Should Call the Kind of Story This Magazine Is". The letter discussed the parameters of S&S--at that point, still unnamed--and bandied about some ideas, but it wasn't until Leiber sent a letter to the fanzine, Ancalagon, that the term "sword-and-sorcery" was actually coined. Fritz had just named the genre we all know and love.*

One might get the idea that Leiber liked writing letters and non-fiction essays for magazines. One would be absolutely correct in making such a supposition. Fritz started way back in 1944, sending in letters and essays to the legendary fanzine, The Acolyte. He would go on to write more letters to various pulps, as well as classier venues like The Arkham Sampler, from the late '40s through the '50s. Leiber didn't just love writing fiction, he loved writing about stuff in general.

In 1966, Fritz wrote paid reviews of various SFF books for a couple of issues of Fantasy and Science Fiction. This was the start of a long-running side career for Leiber. In early 1968, Harry Harrison, the editor at Fantastic, talked Fritz into starting a review column named "Fantasy Books". Fritz's column would appear in most issues of Fantastic for the next decade.

Fantastic changed owners in 1979. Fritz, agile as the Mouser, leapt over to Locus, even retaining the name "Fantasy Books" for his column. Meanwhile, he spread the Leiberish book-love around by also writing a similar column for the fanzine, Fantasy Newsletter, which was titled "On Fantasy". In 1982, Fritz started a new column at Locus titled "Moons & Stars" which very quickly morphed into "Moons & Stars & Stuff". Leiber would keep writing the column until 1992, nearly up to the day he died.

I have laid all of this out to provide some context. Go, now, and click on this link. Scroll down to the "Essays" category--and the "Reviews" category below it--and you will see the vast, untapped riches that are out there. Many, if not most, of those reviews and ruminations on fantasy remain unreprinted.

As I've stated, Fritz was well-read in SFF and he possessed a keen, insightful mind. In many cases, Leiber is the most qualified reviewer to ever review the books in question. Who wouldn't want to read Fritz's reviews of Conan the Conqueror or The Worm Ouroboros? What about his thoughts on Jirel of Joiry, Cahena or Dagon and Other Macabre Tales?

Leiber wasn't just insightful when reviewing the stories themselves. As I noted earlier, Fritz spotted the--probable-- Theosophical influence upon ERB's Barsoom novels. He also was the first to link REH's "James Allison" yarns to Jack London's The Star-Rover.

As I recall, it was Steve Tompkins who once mentioned that Leiber had expressed the desire to write a book on the history of fantasy. Obviously, that never happened. However, Fritz did the next best thing, episodically writing his views on the history of the genre in various fanzines, magazines and books over the course of five decades.

In a better world, there would be a three- or four-volume set of Fritz's collected genre-related writings titled "On Fantasy" with appropriately grouped essays in each volume. One can always dream.

Happy birthday, Fritz.

*ISFDB, to its shame, doesn't even list the issue of Ancalagon in which Fritz's letter appeared.