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.[1]
Synopsis
When amateur chessplayer Stirf Ritter-Rebil (a "quasi-anagrammatic" version of "Fritz Reuter Leiber")[1] purchases the custom-made pocket watch which once belonged to Paul Morphy, his own chess skills are supernaturally boosted — but he also begins to experience side effects.
Reception
"Midnight by the Morphy Watch" was a finalist for the 1975 Hugo Award for Best Novelette,[2] and was ranked ninth in the 1975 Locus Award for Best Short Story.[3] Mike Ashley called it "chilling".[4]
References
- ^ a b 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 Wildside Press
- ^ 1975 Hugo Awards, at TheHugoAwards.org; retrieved July 22, 2018
- ^ 1975 Locus Awards, at the Science Fiction Awards Database; retrieved July 22, 2018
- ^ Gateways to Forever: The Story of the Science-fiction Magazines from 1970 to 1980, by Mike Ashley, published 2007 by Liverpool University Press, 2007
- v
- t
- e
- Conjure Wife (1943)
- Destiny Times Three (1945)
- The Big Time (1961)
- The Wanderer (1964)
- Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (1966)
- A Specter Is Haunting Texas (1969)
- Our Lady of Darkness (1977)
Gray Mouser
- Two Sought Adventure (1957)
- Swords and Deviltry (1970)
- Swords Against Death (1970)
- Swords in the Mist (1968)
- Swords Against Wizardry (1968)
- The Swords of Lankhmar (1968)
- Swords and Ice Magic (1977)
- Bazaar of the Bizarre (1978)
- The Knight and Knave of Swords (1988)
- Swords Against the Shadowland (Robin Wayne Bailey) (1998)
collections
- Night's Black Agents (1947)
- The Best of Fritz Leiber (1974)
- The Book of Fritz Leiber (1974)
- The Second Book of Fritz Leiber (1975)
- Heroes and Horrors (1978)
- "Coming Attraction" (1950)
- "A Pail of Air" (1951)
- "The Moon is Green" (1952)
- "The Unholy Grail" (1962)
- "Bazaar of the Bizarre" (1963)
- "To Arkham and the Stars" (1966)
- "Gonna Roll the Bones" (1967)
- "Ill Met in Lankhmar" (1970)
- "The Snow Women" (1970)
- "Midnight by the Morphy Watch" (1974)
- "Belsen Express" (1975)
- "Catch That Zeppelin!" (1975)
- "The Terror from the Depths" (1976)
- Weird Woman (1944)
- Night of the Eagle (1962)
- Witches' Brew (1980)
- The Girl with the Hungry Eyes (1995)
- Bibliography
- Fritz Leiber, Sr. (father)