THE BEST OF FRITZ LEIBER: 1944 - 1970

Sidgewick & Jackson hardback, 1974.
Cover artist uncredited, very likely Tony Roberts (thanks: Ed, Jeff).

"FRITZ LEIBER began writing science fiction in the 1940s and, to the delight of his fans, is still going strong. Leiber succeeds in blending fantasy and science fiction in superbly readable fashion. This collection demonstrates the development of his fascinating talent. 

The collection includes Gonna Roll The Bones - Joe Slattermill knew he could roll dice better than any man in Night Town. But then he played against the Big Gambler. 

The Big Trek - He didn't know where he was or how he got there. But he did know he shouldn't be able to understand the creatures he met. 

This anthology includes a complete bibliography and an introduction by Fritz Leiber."  

Contents: 

Sanity

Wanted - An Enemy

The Man Who Never Grew Young

The Ship Sails at Midnight

The Enchanted Forest

Coming Attraction

Poor Superman

A Pail of Air

The Foxholes of Mars

The Big Holiday

The Night He Cried

The Big Trek

Space-Time for Springers

Try and Change the Past

A Deskful of Girls

Rump-Titty-Titty-Tum-Tah-Tee

Little Old Miss Macbeth

Mariana

The Man Who Made Friends With Electricity

The Good New Days

Gonna Roll the Bones

America the Beautiful

GATHER, DARKNESS!

NEL paperback, 1979. Cover painting by Tim White.

"THE SECOND ATOMIC AGE IS MENACED BY WITCHCRAFT! 

GATHER, DARKNESS is the watchword in the strange new life of the second atomic age - and age where brain-washing is the means of quelling potential rebels...an age where constant war is wage between priests and witches, angels and devils, the rulers and the ruled...an age where science is supressed, and witchcraft is the way of life... 

But Brother Jarles is the one man whose actions completely upset the established form of government!"

THE BIG TIME

Orbit paperback, 1976. Cover artist uncredited,
possibly Bob Haberfield.

"The secret of time travel is the exclusive property of two huge, shadowy organizations who send their agents into the past to change crucial events in history and thus remodel the world in their own image. Fritz Leiber's masterpiece of sustained surrealistic imagination is the most remarkable novel ever to win science fiction's coveted Hugo award."

OUR LADY OF DARKNESS

Fontana SF paperback, 1978. Cover illustration
by Roy Ellsworth.

"What was the evil figure that haunted Franz Westen? Was it his imagination, or was it something infinitely more frightening, connected somehow with those old books he'd been reading? For there was much in those books to connect the figure with the bizarre twilight world of San Francisco in the 1920s, the world of H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton smith, Jack London, Dashiell Hammett and Aleister Crowley. The more westen plunged into those misty reaches of the occult, the more he would uncover things which had perhaps better lain undisturbed. For Westen, in trying to unravel the mystery of our lady of darkness, was gambling with his life."

A SPECTRE IS HAUNTING TEXAS

Mayflower paperback, 1971. Cover artist uncredited.

"EL ESQUELETO! 

Christopher Crockett La Cruz (or "Scully") is an actor, an extrovert and a ladies' man. To most of the inhabitants of post-World War III he looks outlandish, even sinister. To their women he looks attractive. Earth looks equally odd to Scully. Hormone treatment has turned Texans into giants and their Mex slaves into unhappy dwarfs. 

To the Mexes, Scully is a sign, a Talisman, a Leader. To Scully the Mexes are a cause. The time is ripe for revolution..."