"conjure wife" was written back in 1953 and has seen many editions since then. i read it years ago and was pretty ambivalent about it back then. i saw this new edition with an intro by ramsey campbell and an autobiographical essay by leiber added to the book and decided to get it. it's a number edition to 150, autographed by campbell. after rereading the book, i found it to be a really well-written story. not too sure why i like it so much better now, maybe because many of today's horror stories and pretty shallow, nondescript, with the focus on gore and vulgarities. anyway the story is rich with detail and character development. briefly, it's about a professor who finds his wife practicing witchcraft with other university professors wives. he stops her and their lives drastically change. that's all i'll say. it is well done. the second section, the autobiography is obviously about fritz's life. he does discuss his struggles with alcohol and the other authors who inspired him along the way along with his family doing shakesperian plays. honesty, i found it a bit slow moving and not interesting. the artwork in the book is done by marcela bolivar. in the intro, there are various book covers of the editions published over the years. overall, a highly worthwhile investment and excellent limited edition to add to your collection. it was made into a movie "burn witch burn" with the screenplay done by richard matheson and charles beaumont. sadly, and surprisingly, the screenplay really fails to capture what the book was about and left out a lot of important scenes. but then, books usualy are better than their counterparts, the movies......
