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Conjure Wife

Fritz Leiber

First published April 1943
Type Novel

<b>From the front cover of the Lion first paperback:</b> "Potions in the house... evil in the air... and a witch in his bed." <p><b>From the back cover of the Lion first paperback:</b> ""Conjure Wife... is easily the most frightening (and necessarily) the most thoroughly convincing of all modern horror stories. Its premise is that witchcraft still flourishes, or at any rate survives, an open secret among women, a closed book to men. Under the rational overlay of 20th-century civilization this sickly growth, uncultivated, unsuspected, still manages to propagate itself. <p>Leiber develops this theme with the utmost dexterity, piling up alternate layers of the mundane and outre, until at the story's real climax, the shocker at the end of chapter 14, I am not ashamed to say that I jumped an inch out of my seat. From that point onward the story anticlimax so skillfully managed that I am not really certain I touched the slipcover again until after the last page. Leiber has never written anything better... which perhaps is all that needed to be said." Damon Knight, Science Fiction Adventures"

YearAwardCategoryStatus
1987 Locus Poll Award All-Time Best Fantasy Novel Nominee/Finalist

Date Publication Publisher Type Page
April 1943 Cover Unknown Worlds, April 1943 Street & Smith Publications, Inc. MAGAZINE 9
August 1952 Cover Witches Three Twayne Publishers Omnibus 19
1953 Cover Conjure Wife Twayne Publishers Novel
December 1953 Cover Conjure Wife Lion Books Novel
April 1962 Cover Conjure Wife Berkley Medallion Novel
July 1968 Cover Conjure Wife Award Books Novel
October 1969 Cover Conjure Wife Penguin Books Novel 5
1970 Cover Conjure Wife Award Books Novel
1971 Cover Häxnatten B. Wahlström Novel
1972 Cover Heksenatten Stig Vendelkær Novel
June 1973 Cover The Haunt of Horror, June 1973 Marvel Comics Group MAGAZINE 4
June 1973 Cover Conjure Wife Award Books Novel
August 1973 Cover The Haunt of Horror, August 1973 Marvel Comics Group MAGAZINE 46
1974 Cover Heksenatten Fredhøis Forlag A/S Novel
December 1974 Cover Conjure Wife Award Books Novel
1976 Cover Ballet de sorcières Librairie des Champs-Élysées Novel 7
November 1976 Cover Spielball der Hexen Pabel Novel
June 1977 Cover Conjure Wife Gregg Press Novel 1
November 1977 Cover Conjure Wife Ace Books Novel 1
November 1977 Cover Conjure Wife Ace Books Novel 1
1978 Cover Häxnatten B. Wahlström Novel
July 1981 Cover Conjure Wife Ace Books Novel 1
November 1984 Cover Conjure Wife Ace Books Novel
November 1990 Cover Halloween. Tre storie di streghe Mondadori Omnibus 15
August 1991 Cover Conjure Wife / Our Lady of Darkness Tor Fantasy Omnibus 3
November 1993 Conjure Wife Buccaneer Books Novel
November 1994 Cover Spielball der Hexen Bastei Novel 3
October 1999 Cover Dark Ladies Orb Omnibus 7
April 2002 Cover Ombre del male Mondadori Novel 11
2006 Cover Éjasszonyok Delta Vision Kft. Omnibus 13
October 2008 Cover Hexenvolk Edition Phantasia Novel
September 2009 Cover Conjure Wife Orb Novel
2011 Cover Conjure Wife Audible Frontiers Novel
October 2011 Cover Conjure Wife Centipede Press Novel 13
December 2011 Cover Conjure Wife Gateway / Orion Novel
April 2014 Cover Conjure Wife Open Road Integrated Media Novel
October 2021 Cover Streghe! Mondadori Omnibus |4
March 2023 Conjure Wife Project Gutenberg Chapbook
March 2023 Cover Black Cat Weekly, #81 Wildside Press MAGAZINE
March 2026 Conjure Wife Frolic Press Novel
8888 Conjure Wife Arkham House Novel