they may be hard to find but ANYTHING written by
fritz lieber is well worth it.
I've read a bunch, including his most well known, "Conjure Wife" of which several films were based. it's one of the FEW books that made my hair stand on end. no kidding.
and the 'sequal', "Our Lady of Darkness".
basically, the man was incapable of writing anything less than brilliant.
Harlan Ellison - another brilliant writer - waxes poetic about Lieber. and always has.
Harlan Ellison, Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1977:
"Wonderful, magical Fritz Leiber, before whom Bradbury and Sturgeon and Norton and Goldman and Barth and Vonnegut bow, not to mention Robinson, Busby, Anderson and even yours truly, the maddest egomaniac of them all. Fritz Leiber, very likely the best of all of us, the man who has won more awards than anyone else in the genre, the man who's words have lifted this too often wretched category to Olympian heights more than anyone cares to mention."
elsewhere I've heard him say that most so-called writers aren't good enough to carry Liebers' pencil box.
I once saw Lieber at a convention. He was quite tall (which is unusual for me to notice). The expression, "still waters run deep" seems to apply.
