"Fritz Leiber - Best of Fritz Leiber" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leiber Fritz)

even convey a slight extra insight, which will help that audience appreciate the visitor and what heтАЩll say
a little bit more than they might otherwise have done. Maybe IтАЩll luck out.

LetтАЩs first make a few remarks about the man himself, before going on to his writing. They will be only
a fewтАФdespite the keyhole school of criticism, the facts of a creatorтАЩs life are not required for an
understanding of his or her work; or if they are, then that person has to that extent failed as an artist.
Fritz Leiber does employ a certain amount of autobiography hi his work, perhaps more than any other
maker of science fiction or fantasy. But heтАЩs far too skillful for you to need to know what the personal
element is. Besides, he lets you in on some of it himself, for your pleasure, in his afterword to the
present volume.

And I canтАЩt claim deep knowledge of him in any event. We have been friends for a long time, guests in
each otherтАЩs homes, and so on; but until recently, geographical separation prevented frequent
encounters, and we never happened to strike up one of his extended correspondences which have
delighted a number of people. Therefore, a mere scattering of reminiscences and data:

I first met Fritz Leiber at the 1949 world science fiction convention in Cincinnati. The author of such
cornerstone tales as Gather, Darkness! and Conjure Wtfe seemed even more awe-inspiring In person,
towering, classically handsome, altogether theatrical. The last of these qualities was not deliberateтАФ
rather, he was conventionally clad and soft-spokenтАФbut he couldnтАЩt help it; personality will come
through. He talked to me, a beginner with half a dozen stories in print, as graciously as he did to the
biggest-name writer or editor present, or the humblest fan. Here тАЬgraciouslyтАЭ is used in an exact sense
which is best defined by an example.

From time to time we are all afflicted with bores or boors. Some of us give them the brutal brush-off;
most of us suffer them for a short while, then escape on a mumbled excuse. Fritz Leiber has repeatedly
been seen to listen to such characters, respond to them, actively, sympathetically, and patiently enough
that they never suspect the toleration. He cannot have an enemy in the world; instead, there is a worldful
of people who all hope to be worthy of his friendship.

It is etymologically wrong but psychologically right to define a gentleman as one who is gentle, yet very
much a man. Leiber has been a championship fencer and a chess player rated тАЬexpert.тАЭ To see and hear
him recite ChestertonтАЩs bravura тАЬLepantoтАЭ is an unforgettable experience. And, of course, in his writing
he has stared downтАФ or laughed downтАФdeath, horror, human absurdity, with guts worthy of a Tetters,
Kafka, or Cervantes.

Born in Chicago near the end of 1910, his father a famous Shakespearean actor for whom Fritz was


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 best of fritz leiber

named, he grew up in the atmosphere of the stage, which doubtless has a great deal to do with the highly
visual and dramatic quality of his work. But he took his degree in psychology, which also shows.
Variously a lay preacher, actor, college teacher of drama, and staff writer for an encyclopedia, he tried
free-lancing sporadically. His first published story appeared hi 1939, in that lustrous and mourned
magazine Unknown. During World War II he reached a painful decisionтАФthat the struggle against
fascism was more important than the pacifist convictions which he had long held, and still doesтАФand he
accepted a job in aircraft production. Afterward, he was on the staff of Science Digest for a dozen years.
During all this time he acquired a wife and son and, between dry spells which readers regretted, wrote a