Piers Anthony | |
|---|---|
| Born | Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob (1934-08-06)August 6, 1934 (age 91) Oxford, England |
| Pen name | Piers Anthony |
| Occupation | Novelist,short story writer |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Goddard College |
| Period | 1956–present |
| Genre | Science fiction,fantasy |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Parents | Alfred Jacob and Norma Jacob |
| Website | |
| hipiers | |
Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob (born August 6, 1934)[1] is an American author in thescience fiction andfantasy genres, publishing under the namePiers Anthony. He is best known for hislong-running novel series set in thefictional realm ofXanth.
Many of his books have appeared onThe New York Times Best Seller list, and he claims one of his greatest achievements has been to publish a book beginning with every letter of the alphabet, fromAnthonology toZombie Lover.
Anthony's parents, Alfred and Norma Jacob, wereQuaker pacifists studying at Oxford University who interrupted their studies in 1936 to undertake relief work on behalf of the Quakers during theSpanish Civil War, establishing a food kitchen for children in Barcelona.[2][3] Piers and his sister were left in England in the care of their maternal grandparents and a nanny.[4] Alfred Jacob, although a British citizen, had been born in America nearPhiladelphia, and in 1940, after being forced out of Spain and with the situation in Britain deteriorating, the family sailed to the United States. In 1941 the family settled in a rustic "back to the land"utopian community nearWinhall, Vermont, where a young Piers made the acquaintance of radical authorScott Nearing, a neighbor.[5] Both parents resumed their academic studies, and Alfred eventually became a professor of Romance languages, teaching at a number of colleges in the Philadelphia area.
Piers was moved around to a number of schools, eventually enrolling inGoddard College inVermont where he graduated in 1956.[6] OnThis American Life on July 27, 2012, Anthony revealed that his parents had divorced, he was bullied, and he had poor grades in school. Anthony referred to his high school as a "very fancy private school", and refuses to donate money to it. He recalls being part of "the lower crust", and that no one paid attention to, or cared about him. He said, "I didn't like being a member of the underclass, of the peons like that".[7]
Anthony met his future wife, Carol Marble, while both were attending college. They were married in 1956, the same year he graduated fromGoddard College, and he subsequently worked as ahandyman. In 1957, Anthony decided to join theUnited States Army, as his wife was pregnant and they needed both medical coverage and a steady source of income. During his two-year enlistment, he became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1958[8] and was editor and cartoonist for his battalion's newspaper.
After completing military service, he briefly taught atAdmiral Farragut Academy inSt. Petersburg, Florida before deciding to try to become a full-time writer.[9]
Anthony and his wife made a deal: if he could sell a piece of writing within one year, she would continue to work to support him. But if he could not sell anything in that year, then he would forever give up his dream of being a writer. At the end of the year, he managed to get a short story published. He credits his wife as the person who made his writing career possible, and he advises aspiring writers that they need to have a source of income other than their writing in order to get through the early years of a writing career.[10]
On multiple occasions Anthony has moved from one publisher to another (taking a popular series with him) when he says he felt the editors were unduly tampering with his work. He has sued publishers for accounting malfeasance and won judgments in his favor.[11] Anthony maintains an Internet Publishers Survey in the interest of helping aspiring writers.[12] For this service, he won the 2003 "Friend of EPIC" award for service to the electronic publishing community.[13] His website won theSpecial Recognition for Service to Writers award from Preditors and Editors, an author's guide to publishers and writing services.[14]
His popular novel series Xanth inspired theMS-DOS video gameCompanions of Xanth, byLegend Entertainment. The same series also spawned the board gameXanth byMayfair Games.[15]
Anthony's novels usually end with a chapter-long Author's Note, in which he talks about himself, his life, and his experiences as they related to the process of writing the novel. He often discusses correspondence with readers and any real-world issues that influenced the novel.
Since about 2000, Anthony has written his novels in aLinux environment.[16]
Anthony'sXanth series was ranked No. 99 in a 2011NPR readers' poll of best science fiction and fantasy books.[17]
Act One of episode 470 of the radio programThis American Life is an account of boyhood obsessions with Piers Anthony. The act is written and narrated by writer Logan Hill who, as a 12-year-old, was consumed with reading Anthony's novels. For a decade he felt he must have been Anthony's number one fan, until, when he was 22, he met "Andy" at a wedding and discovered their mutual interest in the writer. Andy is interviewed for the story and explains that, as a teenager, he had used escapist novels in order to cope with his alienating school and home life inBuffalo, New York. In 1987, at age 15, he decided to run away to Florida in order to try to live with Piers Anthony. The story includes Anthony's reflections on these events.[7]
Early in Anthony's literary career, there was a dispute surrounding the original publication (1976) ofBut What of Earth?. EditorRoger Elwood commissioned the novel for his nascent science-fiction lineLaser Books. According to Anthony, he completedBut What of Earth?, and Elwood accepted and purchased it. Elwood then told Anthony that he wished to make several minor changes, and in order not to waste Anthony's time, he had hired copy editor (and author)Robert Coulson to retype the manuscript with the changes. Anthony described Coulson as a friend and was initially open to his contribution.
However, Elwood told Coulson he was to be a full collaborator, free to make revisions to Anthony's text in line with suggestions made by other copy editors. Elwood promised Coulson a 50–50 split with Anthony on all future royalties. According to Anthony, the published novel was very different from his version, with changes to characters and dialog, and with scenes added and removed. Anthony felt the changes worsened the novel. Laser's ultimate publication ofBut What of Earth? listed Anthony and Coulson together as collaborators. Publication rights were reverted to Anthony under threat of legal action. In 1989, Anthony (re)published his originalBut What of Earth? in an annotated edition throughTor Books. This edition contains an introduction and conclusion setting out the story of the novel's permutations and roughly 60 pages of notes by Anthony giving examples of changes to plot and characters, and describing some of the comments made by copy editors on his manuscript.[18]
Some critics have described Anthony's portrayal of female characters as stereotypical and misogynistic, particularly in the early parts of the Xanth series, and have taken issue with themes of pedophilia and eroticism within Anthony's work.[19][20][21] Anthony has stated in interviews that these critiques do not reflect his work accurately and has claimed he receives more fan mail from women than men.[22][23]
He and his first wife, Carol Ann Marble Jacob, had two daughters, Penelope "Penny" Carolyn and Cheryl. Penny had one child, and died in 2009, due to complications from skin cancer. Carol Ann died at home on October 3, 2019, due to what is believed to have been heart related complications due to a 15-year-long battle withchronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP).[24]
On April 22, 2020, he married MaryLee Boyance.[25] Anthony lived on histree farm in Florida until March 2023, at which time he sold his farm and moved to California.[26] MaryLee passed suddenly on January 8, 2026.[27]
Anthony is avegetarian.[28]
Regarding his religious beliefs, Anthony wrote in the October 2004 entry of his personal website, "I'magnostic, which means I regard the case as unproven, but I'm much closer to theatheist position than to thetheist one."[29] In 2017 he stated, "I am more certain about God and the Afterlife: they don't exist."[30]
