An icon of science-fiction, fantasy, graphic novels, and horror since the late 60s, Tanith Lee pioneered many of the archetypes and subverted tropes we recognize in today’s genre fiction.
DAW Publisher Betsy Wollheim–who was her editor from 1975 to 1985–shares her memories of working with Tanith Lee, saying:
When I think of Tanith Lee, I think of nighttime. I remember the hot summer nights when we ran around Manhattan, full of the exuberance of youth. But I also remember sitting alone in the dark, empty office, mesmerized by the wonderous dreamscapes of her manuscripts until long after closing time.
Tanith’s manuscripts were the only ones we never took home. Typed on fragile onionskin, they had to be copied page by laborious page. Tanith’s actual originals were written in longhand, in a kind of shorthand she invented. The typescript that we received was painstakingly transcribed, first by Tanith’s mother, and in later years by Tanith herself. I’ll never forget the times I saw Tanith writing—she was like a person possessed.
And when a Tanith Lee manuscript came into the DAW offices, I was like a woman possessed. When I began reading, nothing could interrupt me. I stayed in the office, transfixed, until I was finished, often not returning home until the wee hours of the morning. Leaving our dark and eerily deserted Manhattan office near dawn and venturing out onto the silent—yet unawakened —streets of midtown, I used to feel like Tanith’s heroine from The Birthgrave, her first DAW book: a woman emerging from a volcano into a strange and alien land.
photo: John Kaiine
A prolific novelist and short fiction writer, Tanith Lee’s writing spanned a broad spectrum of genre fiction.
For those wishing to explore her body of work for the first time or revisit past favorites in eBook, we’ve provided a roadmap below to guide you. When approaching Tanith Lee’s writing, the best place to start depends on the individual, but we hope this primer will be useful to you as you discover these bold, genre-defining works.
THE FLAT EARTH SERIES: Beginning with NIGHT’S MASTER and containing the British Fantasy Award-winning novel, DEATH’S MASTER, this series was welcomed with critical acclaim when it debuted in 1978.
THE BIRTHGRAVE TRILOGY: Tanith Lee’s first DAW book is a subversive approach to the Sword & Sorcery subgenre, which is important in understanding the roots of today’s dark fantasy.
STANDALONE TALES OF MONSTROUS CREATURES: Containing elements of horror and dark fantasy, Tanith Lee frequently explored narratives of transformation, sensuality, and power, writing about morally complex, monstrous characters far ahead of the modern trend.
SCIENCE FICTION: Possessing a psychedelic and dreamlike quality, Tanith Lee’s approach to SF broke genre conventions in her distinct voice and lush, lyrical prose.
PROLIFIC WRITER OF SHORT FICTION: Her work appeared in all major and popular science fiction and fantasy short fiction publications, and were collected in several collections by DAW and others.
