# Fritz Leiber - Maker: Author - Date: 1910–1992 - Houses: TSR, Inc. - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/fritz-leiber/ > The actor's son who invented Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, coined the phrase 'sword and sorcery', and designed a Lankhmar wargame in 1937 that TSR published four decades later. **Why it matters:** Leiber gave the genre its name and its most beloved rogues. Gygax ranked him among AD&D's most immediate influences, and the city of Lankhmar is the ancestor of every thieves' guild and roguish adventuring pair in games. ## Quick answers **Who was Fritz Leiber?** The actor's son who invented Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, coined the phrase 'sword and sorcery', and designed a Lankhmar wargame in 1937 that TSR published four decades later. **When was Fritz Leiber born?** Fritz Leiber was born in 1910 in Chicago, Illinois and died in 1992. **What is Fritz Leiber known for?** Fritz Leiber is best known for Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. **Why does Fritz Leiber matter to fantasy and games?** Leiber gave the genre its name and its most beloved rogues. Gygax ranked him among AD&D's most immediate influences, and the city of Lankhmar is the ancestor of every thieves' guild and roguish adventuring pair in games. ## Life Fritz Reuter Leiber Jr. was born in Chicago on 24 December 1910, the son of the Shakespearean actor Fritz Leiber Sr. and his wife, the actress Virginia Bronson. He grew up partly on tour with his parents' repertory company, and theater never left him: he acted on stage under the name Francis Lathrop and played small, uncredited parts in Hollywood films including *Camille* (1936) and *The Hunchback of Notre Dame* (1939). He studied psychology and physiology at the University of Chicago, graduating in 1932, briefly studied for the Episcopal ministry, and then drifted through jobs as an editor, a teacher of drama and speech, and a precision inspector in an aircraft plant during the war. In 1936 he married Jonquil Stephens, and in the same years began corresponding with [H. P. Lovecraft](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/h-p-lovecraft/), who encouraged his early writing. Leiber struggled for much of his life with alcoholism, especially after Jonquil's death in 1969, and he lived for years in modest rooms in San Francisco, writing on a manual typewriter. Late in life, royalties from TSR's Lankhmar products eased his circumstances. He married the writer Margo Skinner in 1992 and died on 5 September 1992 after a stroke. ## Work In the mid-1930s Leiber and his friend Harry Otto Fischer began inventing, by letter, a pair of adventurers: Fafhrd, a seven-foot northern barbarian and singer (a self-portrait of the tall, theatrical Leiber), and the Gray Mouser, a small, quick, sardonic thief and apprentice wizard (a portrait of Fischer). They roamed the world of Nehwon and its great, corrupt city, Lankhmar, with its Thieves' Guild, its Street of the Gods, its rat-infested cellars and its sorcerers. The first story, "Two Sought Adventure," was published in *Unknown* in August 1939, and Leiber went on writing about the pair for half a century. "Ill Met in Lankhmar" (1970), the story of their first meeting, won both the Hugo and the Nebula. The [Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/fafhrd-and-the-gray-mouser/) tales are witty, melancholy and humane where much [Sword & Sorcery](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/sword-and-sorcery/) was grim: the heroes are friends first, often broke, often hung over, perpetually tangled with rival wizards and doomed loves. Leiber was equally important elsewhere. *Conjure Wife* (1943) put witchcraft in an American college town; *The Big Time* (1958) and *The Wanderer* (1964) won Hugo Awards; and *Our Lady of Darkness* (1977), a San Francisco urban horror novel, won the World Fantasy Award. He was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1981. In 1961, when the young [Michael Moorcock](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/michael-moorcock/) asked in the pages of the fan press what [Howard](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/robert-e-howard/)-style heroic fantasy should be called, Leiber answered in a fanzine letter with "sword-and-sorcery." The name stuck. ## Legacy Few novelists are so directly woven into roleplaying games. In [Appendix N](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/appendix-n/) of the 1979 *Dungeon Masters Guide*, [Gary Gygax](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/gary-gygax/) listed the "Fafhrd & Gray Mouser" series and named Leiber among the "most immediate influences" on [AD&D](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/advanced-dungeons-and-dragons/). The thief class, the thieves' guild, the party of mismatched friends and the sprawling, decadent city of intrigue all have a strong Lankhmar flavor. [TSR, Inc.](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/tsr/) published Leiber and Fischer's 1937 board wargame *Lankhmar* in 1976, revised by Gygax and others; *Deities & Demigods* (1980) included the gods of Nehwon; and TSR followed with the AD&D sourcebook *Lankhmar – City of Adventure* (1985) and a series of modules. The shared-world city of Sanctuary in [Thieves' World](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/thieves-world/) (1979), itself licensed for gaming, is often compared to Lankhmar, and so is nearly every rogue-haunted port city in a campaign setting since. Every time a rogue and a fighter share a tavern table and an unwise plan, Fafhrd and the Mouser are in the room. ## Facts - Fafhrd was modeled on Leiber himself and the Gray Mouser on his friend Harry Otto Fischer, who co-invented the pair in letters in the mid-1930s. - The first published Fafhrd and Mouser story, 'Two Sought Adventure', appeared in Unknown in August 1939. - Leiber proposed the term 'sword-and-sorcery' in 1961, in fanzine correspondence answering Michael Moorcock's call for a name for the genre. - He and Fischer designed a Lankhmar board wargame in 1937; TSR published a revised version in 1976. - He appeared, uncredited, in the films Camille (1936) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939). - Deities & Demigods (1980) included a Nehwon mythos, and TSR later published the AD&D setting Lankhmar – City of Adventure (1985). ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Leiber) - [Wikipedia: Lankhmar (board game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lankhmar_(board_game)) - [Wikipedia: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fafhrd_and_the_Gray_Mouser) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.