my facebook (and real life friend) jeff barnes sent me this picture of best friends harry o. fischer and my grandfather fritz leiber. the two met in college and remained friends for life. and this was before facebook! the inspiration for fritz’ s series of novels set in the land of newhon came out of a board game the two created. in february while others are fretting over what to do on the fourteenth, i’m going to be thinking about the fromances of my life.
harry fischer and frtiz leiber
arlynnpresser 
February 5th, 2013 at 5:18 pm
Thanks for posting this ArLynn. Friends are the family that you pick out for yourself. Fritz and Harry formed a great team. I can only imagine what it was like to listen in on their brain storming sessions.
February 5th, 2013 at 5:52 pm
absolutely would have been interesting. i was honored to know fritz for a few years before his death–if you recall, i was put up for adoption when i was three and didn’t “retrieve” my biological family until i was twenty five. i was astonished at how brilliant fritz was and i’m only sorry i never met harry
February 5th, 2013 at 6:05 pm
Great post and an inspiration to work at keeping up friendships. Friendships are very important to our health and happiness. I wrote about this in “Quality of Life: The Power of Relationship”. http://boomersmarkets.com/2012/12/27/quality-of-life-the-power-of-relationship/
February 5th, 2013 at 6:26 pm
See that? There WAS life before Facebook! 🙂
February 5th, 2013 at 6:59 pm
I knew Harry for about five years, from 1981 until he died in 1986. Unfortunately I only met Fritz (and Franklin MacKnight) on that one weekend in 1982 when they were in town, though I did exchange some cards and letters with Fritz. I was a geeky science fiction fan in my 20s but they were all very kind to me and I was in awe of them!
February 5th, 2013 at 7:01 pm
thanks so much for the picture and the memories!
February 5th, 2013 at 7:19 pm
Thanks from other Fritz and Harry fans too, Jeff.
February 5th, 2013 at 7:07 pm
My pleasure, ArLynn!
February 5th, 2013 at 7:16 pm
ArLynn,
You probably know a lot more about this than anyone but the University of Houston has Fritz’s papers and a lot of correspondence between Harry, Justin and many others. The study of his relationship with Harry and his life in general would the subject of a your next great book. I think that he would have been excited about your most recent project.
http://archon.lib.uh.edu/?p=collections/findingaid&id=281&q=&rootcontentid=29341#id29341
February 5th, 2013 at 7:18 pm
the university of illinois rare books and manuscripts library also has a lot of fritz stuff, including more about his own father and mother. it would be a neat book! thanks for the suggestion!
February 5th, 2013 at 7:21 pm
I’m glad that he got to see his grand daughter. Can you share some of those stories sometime? I kind of imagine that Jonquil would have looked like you.
February 5th, 2013 at 7:45 pm
Yep, I think that the University of Illinois has a good sized Fritz Sr. collection. Have you ever been through either one?
February 5th, 2013 at 8:18 pm
That would be a great book — one that Leiber scholars would love!