More vintage paperback editions of famous horror/fantasy novels by elder genre statesmen
Fritz Leiber:
Our Lady of Darkness,
Conjure Wife, and
Night's Black Agents. I first wrote about Leiber's work here
last year. Above you see the Ace Fantasy edition of
Our Lady from 1978, with cover art by Norman Walker. Rather well-done, keeping very much to the nature of the story itself. In England it was published by Fontana that same year, art by Roy Ellsworth.
Two editions of
Night's Black Agents (originally published by Arkham House in 1947): first from Ballantine Books in 1961 - complete with "Leiber" misspelled - then Berkley 1978, cover art by the incredible
Wayne Barlowe. This later edition contains two of Leiber's most famous tales, "Smoke Ghost" and "The Girl with the Hungry Eyes." First paperback edition emphasizes "horror," while the latter, after his reputation was made, "fantasy."
First paperback for
Conjure Wife from Lion Books in 1953, cover art by Robert Maguire. Lovely classic Gothic imagery, although the story is set on a sedate college campus and most definitely not in a remote mountaintop castle.
Here's the movie tie-in edition, from Berkley Medallion 1962. You can now watch
Burn, Witch, Burn on Netflix Instant! Highly recommended, not least because the screenplay is by - hot damn! -
Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont! The Ace paperback from 1977 has an almost mainstream-thriller die-cut cover. Reprinted again by Ace Fantasy in 1984, you can see it's meant as a companion volume to
Our Lady at the top.
And finally, in 1991 Tor Books published one of their double editions collecting both of Leiber's stellar novels about dark and mysterious women, again with art from Barlowe.
Fritz Leiber 1910 - 1992
More vintage paperback editions of famous horror/fantasy novels by elder genre statesmen Fritz Leiber: Our Lady of Darkness, Conjure Wife, and Night's Black Agents. I first wrote about Leiber's work here last year. Above you see the Ace Fantasy edition of Our Lady from 1978, with cover art by Norman Walker. Rather well-done, keeping very much to the nature of the story itself. In England it was published by Fontana that same year, art by Roy Ellsworth.
Two editions of Night's Black Agents (originally published by Arkham House in 1947): first from Ballantine Books in 1961 - complete with "Leiber" misspelled - then Berkley 1978, cover art by the incredible Wayne Barlowe. This later edition contains two of Leiber's most famous tales, "Smoke Ghost" and "The Girl with the Hungry Eyes." First paperback edition emphasizes "horror," while the latter, after his reputation was made, "fantasy."
First paperback for Conjure Wife from Lion Books in 1953, cover art by Robert Maguire. Lovely classic Gothic imagery, although the story is set on a sedate college campus and most definitely not in a remote mountaintop castle.
Here's the movie tie-in edition, from Berkley Medallion 1962. You can now watch Burn, Witch, Burn on Netflix Instant! Highly recommended, not least because the screenplay is by - hot damn! - Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont! The Ace paperback from 1977 has an almost mainstream-thriller die-cut cover. Reprinted again by Ace Fantasy in 1984, you can see it's meant as a companion volume to Our Lady at the top.
And finally, in 1991 Tor Books published one of their double editions collecting both of Leiber's stellar novels about dark and mysterious women, again with art from Barlowe.
Fritz Leiber 1910 - 1992
Nice post. I'm a big fan of "Our Lady of Darkness" and "Conjure Wife" both chilling and atmospheric in their on way. Just started reading "Swords and Deviltry" which I would also recommend.
ReplyDeleteAren't they though? I've only read a couple of his short stories, but none of his fantasy novels.
ReplyDelete