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had dominated the pulp fantasy magazines. Leiber also made a mark with his horror fiction, updating the tropes of Gothic horror for modern urban settings inhabited by psychologically complex characters in stories such as "Smoke Ghost" and his first novel, Conjure Wife (serialized 1941; revised for book publication 1953; filmed as Weird Woman in 1948 and Burn, Witch, Burn in 1963). The latter, a rational treatment of the persistence of witchcraft in the modern world, became one of the most influential horror novels of the twentieth century.
When Unknown folded in 1943, Leiber concentrated on writing science fiction, producing the novels Gather, Darkness!, a futuristic novel satirizing religion, and Destiny Times Three for Astounding Science Fiction. His first book, the collection Night's Black Agents, was published in 1947. "You're All Alone" (final revision as The Sinful Ones, 1986), a short fantasy novel about alienation in the modern world, as well as stories Leiber wrote for the burgeoning science fiction market of the 1950s, blurred the boundaries of science fiction, fantasy, and horror through their imaginative expression of America's postwar angst. The Big Time (1961) is the centerpiece of a series of tales entitled The Change War, all probing the notion of time travel. The Wanderer (1964), about a mysterious planet that approaches the Earth, and A Specter Is Haunting Texas (1969), a political satire about a futuristic society, are among Leiber's more significant works of "hard" science fiction.
Over the last twenty-five years of his life Leiber amassed numerous awards for his writing, including seven Hugos, four Nebulas, and the World Fantasy Award for his novel Our Lady of Darkness (1977), a tale of urban paranoia set in his adopted town of San Francisco. He became the only writer to win lifetime achievement awards in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction fields. Although hobbled by health problems throughout the 1980s, Leiber continued to write, producing the lengthy and insightful autobiographical essay "Not Much Disorder and Not So Early Sex" for his collection The Ghost Light (1984) and a final collection of Fafhrd and Mouser stories, The Knight and Knave of Swords (1988). He died from complications of a series of strokes on September 5, 1992.

 
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