Spell of the Witch World is a collection of short fiction by science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 and fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 Andre Norton

Andre Norton

Andre Alice Norton, née Alice Mary Norton was an American science fiction and fantasy author under the noms de plume Andre Norton, Andrew North and Allen Weston...

, forming part of her Witch World

Witch World

The Witch World by Andre Norton is a long series of fantasy novels set in a parallel universe where magic works and, at the beginning of the series, is exclusively performed by women. The series combines many traits of high fantasy and sword and sorcery. It begins with what is now called the...

 series. It was first published in paperback by DAW Books

DAW Books

DAW Books is an American science fiction and fantasy publisher, founded by Donald A. Wollheim following his departure from Ace Books in 1971. The company therefore claims to be "the first publishing company ever devoted exclusively to science fiction and fantasy." The first DAW Book published was...

 in April 1972, and has been reprinted numerous times since. It has the distinction of being the first book released by that publisher. Early printings had cover art and a frontispiece by artist Jack Gaughan

Jack Gaughan

Jack Gaughan was an American science fiction artist and illustrator who won the Hugo Award several times. Working primarily with Donald A...

; later printings replaced the cover art (but not the frontispiece) with new art by Michael Whelan

Michael Whelan

Michael Whelan is an American artist of imaginative realism. For more than 30 years he worked as an illustrator specializing in science fiction and fantasy cover art...

. The first hardcover

Hardcover

A hardcover, hardback or hardbound is a book bound with rigid protective covers...

 edition was a photographic reprint of the DAW edition published by Gregg Press

Gregg Press

Gregg Press was founded about 1965 by Charles Gregg in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey to distribute in the United States the antiquarian reprints published in the UK by Gregg Press International....

 in 1977. It featured a new frontispiece by Alice D. Phalen and endpaper maps of the Witch World by Barbi Johnson.

The book collects three "Witch World" pieces by Norton, two novellas and one short story.