The Best of Fritz Leiber

The Best of Fritz Leiber

Cover of the first edition of The Best of Fritz Leiber
Author Fritz Leiber
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre fantasy, science fiction and horror short stories
Publisher Sphere Books
Publication date
 1974
Media type Print (Paperback)
Pages 368 pp
ISBN 0-7221-5474-7

The Best of Fritz Leiber is a collection of short stories by Fritz Leiber. It was first published in the United Kingdom by Sphere Books in paperback in May 1974, and in the United States in hardcover by Doubleday in June 1974; a British hardcover and American paperback followed in November of the same year from Sidgwick & Jackson and Ballantine Books, respectively. The Sphere edition was reprinted in June 1977, and the Ballantine edition in September 1979.

The collection contains twenty-two fantasy, science fiction and horror novelettes and short stories. The British and American editions differ slightly from each other. The former credits Angus Wells as editor; the latter neither lists an editor nor acknowledges the existence of the earlier edition. Both contain the same stories, but the British edition arranges these chronologically in the order of their original publication, while the American edition presents the novelette "Gonna Roll the Bones" first, out of its chronological order. The British edition also includes an introduction by the author and a bibliography of his published books as of 1973; the American edition substitutes a different introduction by Poul Anderson and an afterword by the author.

The stories were originally published in the magazines Astounding Science Fiction for April 1944, February 1945, October 1950 and March 1958, Fantastic Adventures for September 1950, Galaxy Science Fiction for November 1950, July 1951, December 1951 and October 1965, Thrilling Wonder Stories for June 1952, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction for January 1953, October 1957, April 1958, May 1958, December 1958 and March 1962, and Fantastic Science Fiction Stories for February 1960, the collection Night's Black Agents, (1947), and the anthologies Star Science Fiction Stories (1953), Star Science Fiction Stories No. 4 (1958), Dangerous Visions (1967), and The Year 2000 (1970).

Contents

British edition:

  • "Introduction"
  • "Sanity" (1944)
  • " Wanted - An Enemy" (1945)
  • " The Man Who Never Grew Young" (1947)
  • "The Ship Sails at Midnight" (1950)
  • "The Enchanted Forest" (1950)
  • "Coming Attraction" (1950)
  • "Poor Superman" (1951)
  • "A Pail of Air" (1951)
  • "The Foxholes of Mars" (1952)
  • "The Big Holiday" (1953)
  • "The Night He Cried" (1953)
  • "The Big Trek" (1957)
  • "Space-Time for Springers" (1958)
  • "Try and Change the Past" (1958)
  • "A Deskful of Girls" (1958)
  • "Rump-Titty-Titty-Tum-TAH-Tee" (1958)
  • "Little Old Miss Macbeth" (1958)
  • "Mariana" (1960)
  • "The Man Who Made Friends with Electricity" (1962)
  • "The Good New Days" (1965)
  • "Gonna Roll the Bones" (1967)
  • "America the Beautiful" (1970)
  • "The Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of Fritz Leiber"

American edition:

  • "The Wizard of Nehwon" (Poul Anderson)
  • "Gonna Roll the Bones" (1967)
  • "Sanity" (1944)
  • " Wanted - An Enemy" (1945)
  • " The Man Who Never Grew Young" (1947)
  • "The Ship Sails at Midnight" (1950)
  • "The Enchanted Forest" (1950)
  • "Coming Attraction" (1950)
  • "Poor Superman" (1951)
  • "A Pail of Air" (1951)
  • "The Foxholes of Mars" (1952)
  • "The Big Holiday" (1953)
  • "The Night He Cried" (1953)
  • "The Big Trek" (1957)
  • "Space-Time for Springers" (1958)
  • "Try and Change the Past" (1958)
  • "A Deskful of Girls" (1958)
  • "Rump-Titty-Titty-Tum-TAH-Tee" (1958)
  • "Little Old Miss Macbeth" (1958)
  • "Mariana" (1960)
  • "The Man Who Made Friends with Electricity" (1962)
  • "The Good New Days" (1965)
  • "America the Beautiful" (1970)
  • "Afterword"

Awards

The book won the 1975 Locus Poll Award for Best Single Author Collection. The story "Gonna Roll the Bones" won both the 1967 Nebula Award and the 1968 Hugo Award for Best Novelette.

Projected Night Shade edition

As of July 5, 2009, Night Shade Press was planning a new Leiber collection to be issued under the same title, but covering the whole of his writing career through his death in 1992. Publication was projected for 2010.[1]

Notes

  1. ↑ Strahan, Jonathan. "Finding Fritz - Editing The Best of Fritz Leiber," in LOCUS online, July 5, 2009.

References

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