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Midnight By The Morphy Watch
"Midnight by the Morphy Watch" is a horror fiction story about chess, written by American author Fritz Leiber. It was first published in '' If'', in July 1974. The story is one of a series of works by Leiber whose settings are places that he inhabited, and whose protagonists are based on himself.Poetry of Darkness: the Horror Fiction of Fritz Leiber by Michael E. Stamm ; in ''Discovering Modern Horror Fiction II'', edited by Darrell Schweitzer, published December 1988 by |
Horror Fiction
Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon, in 1984, defined the horror story as "a piece of fiction in prose of variable length... which shocks, or even frightens the reader, or perhaps induces a feeling of repulsion or loathing". Horror intends to create an eerie and frightening atmosphere for the reader. Often the central menace of a work of horror fiction can be interpreted as a metaphor for larger fears of a society. Prevalent elements of the genre include ghosts, demons, vampires, werewolves, ghouls, the Devil, witches, monsters, extraterrestrials, dystopian and post-apocalyptic worlds, serial killers, cannibalism, cults, dark magic, satanism, the macabre, gore and torture. History Before 1000 The horror genre has ancient origins, with roots in folklore ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to distinguish it from related games, such as xiangqi (Chinese chess) and shogi (Japanese chess). The recorded history of chess goes back at least to the emergence of a similar game, chaturanga, in seventh-century India. The rules of chess as we know them today emerged in Europe at the end of the 15th century, with standardization and universal acceptance by the end of the 19th century. Today, chess is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide. Chess is an abstract strategy game that involves no hidden information and no use of dice or cards. It is played on a chessboard with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. At the start, each player controls sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fritz Leiber
Fritz Reuter Leiber Jr. ( ; December 24, 1910 – September 5, 1992) was an American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theater and films, playwright, and chess expert. With writers such as Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock, Leiber is one of the fathers of sword and sorcery and coined the term. Life Fritz Leiber was born December 24, 1910, in Chicago, Illinois, to the actors Fritz Leiber and Virginia Bronson Leiber. For a time, he seemed inclined to follow in his parents' footsteps; the theater and actors feature in his fiction. He spent 1928 touring with his parents' Shakespeare company (Fritz Leiber & Co.) before entering the University of Chicago, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received an undergraduate Ph.B. degree in psychology and physiology or biology with honors in 1932. From 1932 to 1933, he worked as a lay reader and studied as a candidate for the ministry, without taking a degree, at the General Theolog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
If (magazine)
''If'' was an American science fiction magazine launched in March 1952 by Quinn Publications, owned by James L. Quinn. The magazine was moderately successful, though for most of its run it was not considered to be in the first tier of American science fiction magazines. It achieved its greatest success under editor Frederik Pohl, winning the Hugo Award for best professional magazine three years running from 1966 to 1968. ''If'' published many award-winning stories over its 22 years, including Robert A. Heinlein's novel ''The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress'' and Harlan Ellison's short story "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream". The most prominent writer to make his first sale to ''If'' was Larry Niven, whose story "The Coldest Place" appeared in the December 1964 issue. ''If'' was merged into ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' after the December 1974 issue, its 175th issue overall. Publication history Although science fiction had been published in the United States before the 1920s, it di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Darrell Schweitzer
Darrell Charles Schweitzer (born August 27, 1952) is an American writer, editor, and critic in the field of speculative fiction. Much of his focus has been on dark fantasy and horror fiction, horror, although he does also work in science fiction and fantasy. Schweitzer is also a prolific writer of literary criticism and editor of collections of essays on various writers within his preferred genres. Life and career Schweitzer was born in Woodbury, New Jersey,''Contemporary Authors Online'', Detroit: Gale, 2007. son of Francis Edward and Mary Alice Schweitzer. He attended Villanova University from 1970 to 1976, from which he received a B.S. in geography (1974) and an M.A. in English (1976). He started his literary career as a reviewer and columnist. He worked as an editorial assistant for ''Asimov's Science Fiction, Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine'' from 1977 to 1982 and ''Amazing Stories'' from 1982 to 1986, was co-editor with George H. Scithers and John Gregory Betancourt of ''Weird ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wildside Press
Wildside Press is an independent publishing company in Cabin John, Maryland, United States. It was founded in 1989 by John Betancourt and Kim Betancourt. While the press was originally conceived as a publisher of speculative fiction in both trade and limited editions, its focus has broadened since then, both in content and format. Its website notes publication of works of mystery, romance, science fiction, fantasy, and nonfiction, as well as downloadable audiobooks and CDs, eBooks, magazines, and physical books. Wildside Press has published approximately 10,000 books through print on demand and traditional means. Writers The company has published work by a number of contemporary writers, including Lloyd Biggle Jr., Alan Dean Foster, Paul Di Filippo, Esther Friesner, S. T. Joshi, Ionuț Caragea, Paul Levinson, David Langford, Nick Mamatas, Brian McNaughton, Vera Nazarian, Paul Park, Tim Pratt, Stephen Mark Rainey, Alan Rodgers, Darrell Schweitzer, Lawrence Watt-Evans, and Ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pocket Watch
A pocket watch (or pocketwatch) is a watch that is made to be carried in a pocket, as opposed to a watch, wristwatch, which is strapped to the wrist. They were the most common type of watch from their development in the 16th century until wristwatches became popular after World War I during which a transitional design, trench watches, were used by the military. Pocket watches generally have an attached chain to allow them to be secured to a waistcoat, lapel, or belt (clothing), belt loop, and to prevent them from being dropped. Watches were also mounted on a short leather strap or fob, when a long chain would have been cumbersome or likely to catch on things. This fob could also provide a protective flap over their face and crystal. Women's watches were normally of this form, with a watch fob that was more decorative than protective. Chains were frequently decorated with a silver or Vitreous enamel, enamel pendant, often carrying the arms of some Club (organization), club or s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Morphy
Paul Charles Morphy (June 22, 1837 – July 10, 1884) was an American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and is often considered the unofficial World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he was called "The Pride and Sorrow of Chess" because he had a brilliant chess career but retired from the game while still young. Commentators agree that he was far ahead of his time as a chess player, though there is disagreement on how his play ranks compared to modern players. Morphy was born in New Orleans to a wealthy and distinguished family. He learned to play chess by simply watching games between his father and uncle. His family soon recognized the boy's talent for the game and encouraged him to play at family gatherings, and by the age of nine he was considered to be one of the best players in the city. At just twelve years of age, Morphy defeated visiting Hungarian master Johann Löwenthal in a three-game match. After receiving his law ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hugo Award For Best Novelette
The Hugo Award for Best Novelette is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The novelette award is available for works of fiction of between 7,500 and 17,500 words; awards are also given out in the short story, novella and novel categories. The Hugo Awards have been described as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction" and "the best known literary award for science fiction writing". The Hugo Award for Best Novelette was first awarded in 1955, and was subsequently awarded in 1956, 1958, and 1959, lapsing in 1960. The category was reinstated for 1967 through 1969, before lapsing again in 1970; after returning in 1973, it has remained to date. In addition to the regular Hugo awards, beginning in 1996 Retrospective Hugo Awards, or "Retro Hugos", have been available to be awarded for 50, 75, or 100 years prior. Retro Hugos may only be awarded for years after 1939 in which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Locus Award For Best Short Story
The Locus Award for Best Short Story is one of a series of Locus Awards given every year by ''Locus Magazine''. Awards presented in a given year are for works published in the previous calendar year. Originally known as the Locus Award for Best Short Fiction, the first award in this category was presented in 1971. Winners Winners are as follows: accessed 4 March 2015 References Short Story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mo ...
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Mike Ashley (writer)
Michael Raymond Donald Ashley (born 1948) is a British bibliographer, author and editor of science fiction, mystery, and fantasy. He edits the long-running ''Mammoth Book'' series of short story anthologies, each arranged around a particular theme in mystery, fantasy, or science fiction. He has a special interest in fiction magazines and has written a multi-volume ''History of the Science Fiction Magazine'' and a study of British fiction magazines, ''The Age of the Storytellers''. He won the Edgar Award for ''The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Modern Crime Fiction''. In addition to the books listed below he edited and prepared for publication the novel ''The Enchantresses'' (1997) by Vera Chapman. He has contributed to many reference works including ''The Encyclopedia of Fantasy'' (as Contributing Editor) and ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (as Contributing Editor of the third edition). He wrote the books to accompany the British Library's exhibitions, ''Taking Liberties'' in 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liverpool University Press
Liverpool University Press (LUP), founded in 1899, is the third oldest university press in England after Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. As the press of the University of Liverpool, it specialises in modern languages, literatures, history, and visual culture and currently publishes more than 150 books a year, as well as 34 academic journals. LUP's books are distributed in North America by Oxford University Press. History One of the earliest heads of the press was Lascelles Abercrombie, the first poetry lecturer at the university. In 2013, LUP acquired the rights to the University of Exeter Press' publications on archaeology, medieval studies, history, classics and ancient history, landscape studies. In 2014, the company announced the launch of ''Modern Languages Open'', its peer-reviewed open access online platform publishing research from across the modern languages. In 2015, the press launched Pavilion Poetry, a new imprint publishing collections ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
