Today marks the thirtieth anniversary of when Fritz Leiber departed this mortal coil. At the venerable age of eighty-one, he left behind him a truly great legacy in the fields of fantasy, science fiction and horror, not to mention the realms of literary criticism and role-playing games. Without a doubt, a career and life worth remembering.

Fritz Leiber--Fritz Leiber, Jr., to be exact--grew up in Chicago, the son of two Shakespearean actors. His father, Fritz Leiber, Sr., was quite famous as a stage actor--H.P. Lovecraft was a fan--but Fritz the Elder also starred in numerous movies. I was pleasantly surprised to hear Fritz the Senior referenced in the movie, Best in Show, a half-century after his death.

That upbringing bestowed a deep appreciation of Shakespeare in the young Fritz, but he was also reading--and being deeply influenced by--'trashy' authors such as H. Rider Haggard, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Talbot Mundy. Leiber would later go on to write a Tarzan pastiche novel.

After spending some time as a Shakespearean actor in his father's troupe--where he learned a fair bit of fencing--Leiber majored in psychology and biology at the University of Chicago, then studied for a year at a theological seminary. From there, his jobs and accomplishments were all over the map.

Fritz sojourned for a short time in Hollywood, appearing in bit parts and partying with the likes of Lionel Barrymore. Tinseltown taught him all about decadence and illusion, some of which showed up in tales such as "The Bazaar of the Bizarre".

Leiber returned to Chi-town, working various jobs while trying to get his literary career going. During that period, his correspondence with Harry Fischer birthed the world and characters of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. It was also at that time when his future wife, Jonquil, put him in touch with H.P. Lovecraft. Fritz already loved the tales penned by the Old Gent from Providence, but their correspondence cemented HPL as Leiber's literary touchstone, second only to Shakespeare. He would later dub Lovecraft a "literary Copernicus".

From there, Leiber went on to explore--and excel in--the fields of sci-fi, horror and fantasy. His major impact in fantasy started early with his sword-and-sorcery tales of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Lovecraft had given Fritz some good advice on the first draft of "Adept's Gambit" and August Derleth published several Nehwon tales in the 1947 Arkham House edition of Night's Black Agents. Being published in hardcover by Arkham House truly put Leiber on the literary map. The collection was praised by no less than Poul Anderson.

There were--naturally--some horror tales in Night's Black Agents, but Conjure Wife remains the tale that cemented Leiber's reputation in the horror field. Appearing in hardcover from Twayne Publications in 1953, Leiber's novel of witchcraft in academia has been adapted numerous times in radio, television and film.

When it comes to science fiction, I think it's hard to beat two of Leiber's early novels, Gather, Darkness! and You're All Alone. Both depict a setting—with more than a tinge of horror—where the actual reality is far, far different from the surface seeming. While I suppose it's possible that both Wachowskis never, ever, ever read either of these novels, I'll just say that Fritz was prescient and groundbreaking.

Another Leiber SF novel of note is The Wanderer--written after he and Jonquil returned to Los Angeles. Not only is it a cool SF 'disaster' novel with numerous ERB references, it is also a tale of “hollow planets filled with catgirls who want to steal the moon”, as one sarcastic hipster termed it. What's not to like? It also--maybe not so eerily--presages Lucas' Death Star by about fifteen years. I covered much of Fritz’s SF and horror legacy in this post.

Fritz's wife, Jonquil, died in 1969. He lapsed back into alcoholism and moved to a flat in San Francisco, a city where he would spend the rest of his days. Living in that haunted metropolis would inspire the greatest novel of his later career, Our Lady of Darkness, a semi-autobiographical horror novel inextricably linked to the City by the Bay. A modern 'urban horror' classic. This was also the period during which noted Dashiell Hammett/REH scholar, Don Herron, got to know and befriend Fritz.

It was during his final sojourn in Frisco that Leiber wrote much of his highly insightful literary criticism of various SFF/horror works. I cover a lot of that in this post.

It was around this time that, fortuitously, one Gary Gygax appeared. TSR and Dungeons & Dragons were exploding. Gygax brought on Leiber and Harry Fischer to help on TSR's adaptations of the two men's Lankhmar setting. While I don't know anything about how it all helped out Fischer, it is a stone-cold fact that checks from TSR allowed Leiber to live comfortably for the rest of his life. Something that the pleadings of Harlan Ellison and other literary luminaries had not achieved.

Fritz would die on this date in 1992, just shy of his eighty-second birthday. At that point, he had already influenced the likes of Ramsey Campbell, Michael Moorcock, Harlan Ellison, Terry Pratchett, Glen Cook, Tim Powers, Neil Gaiman and Michael Chabon, demonstrating the sheer breadth of what he had wrought. Countless others have been influenced first- or second-hand since.

Raise your glasses to the shade of a titan, sword-brothers. His influence still stalks among us from all sides.