Friends and Enemies

By Fritz Leiber and John Betancourt

In a world blasted by super-bombs and run by super-thugs, Art vs. Science can be a deadly debate!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wildside Press
• Release date: Jul 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9781479479023

Fritz Leiber

Fritz Leiber (1910–1992) was the highly acclaimed author of numerous science fiction stories and novels, many of which were made into films. He is best known as creator of the classic Lankhmar fantasy series. Leiber has won many awards, including the coveted Hugo and Nebula, and was honored as a lifetime Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America.

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Table of Contents

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

INTRODUCTION, by John Betancourt

FRIENDS AND ENEMIES, by Fritz Leiber

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

Originally published in Infinity, April 1957.

Published by Wildside Press LLC.

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INTRODUCTION,

by John Betancourt

The very first book I published was by Fritz Leiber, back in 1989 when he was the guest of honor at the Philcon science fiction convention. I originally wanted to edit the book for the convention, but the orginizing committee told me there wasn’t enough time to get it published. I argued vociferously that it could easily be done, but they didn’t believe me.

So I did it myself. The book was called Fafhrd and Me, and it appeared in an edition of 100 hardcover and 300 paperback copies. It debuted Philcon that year and sold out in a few months. Thus Wildside Press was born, almost by accident, thanks to Fritz Leiber, a convention committee who didn’t think a book could be published in just three months, and my dedication to proving them wrong.

To be fair, it was a lot harder to publish a book rapidly in the pre-Internet days. Print on demand technology didn’t exist yet. But luckily I had worked on books and magazines for seven years at that point, both with George Scithers’s publishing company, Owlswick Press, and Amazing Stories magazine, which George edited. (And he was very helpful with advice.) So I managed to pull it all together, and we had a book with a couple of weeks to spare.

* * * *

I had long been a fan of Fritz Leiber’s work. Fritz was at heart a fan of fantasy and science fiction, as well as a writer. He contributed not only to all the magazines of his day, but many of the fan publications as well. (The essays in Fafhrd and Me all appeared in fan magazines, such as AMRA,