Henry Beam Piper (March 23, 1904 – ) was an American

science fiction writer This is a list of noted science-fiction authors (in alphabetical order): A *Dafydd ab Hugh (born 1960) * Alexander Abasheli (1884–1954) * Edwin Abbott Abbott (1838–1926) * Kōbō Abe (1924–1993) * Robert Abernathy (1924–1990) *Dan ...

. He wrote many short stories and several novels. He is best known for his extensive Terro-Human Future History series of stories and a shorter series of "Paratime"

alternate history Alternate history (also alternative history, althist, AH) is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, alte ...

tales. He wrote under the name H. Beam Piper. Another source gives his name as "Horace Beam Piper" and a different date of death. His gravestone says "Henry Beam Piper". Piper himself may have been the source of part of the confusion; he told people the H stood for Horace, encouraging the assumption that he used the initial because he disliked his name. On a copy of ''Little Fuzzy'' given to Charles O. Piper, Beam's cousin and executor, he wrote "To Charles from Henry."

Biography

Piper was largely self-educated; he obtained his knowledge of

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence ...

and

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

"without subjecting myself to the ridiculous misery of four years in the uncomfortable confines of a

raccoon coat A raccoon coat is a full-length fur coat made of raccoon pelts, which became a fashion fad in the United States during the 1920s. Such coats were particularly popular with male college students in the middle and later years of the decade. Pur ...

." He went to work at age 18 as a laborer at the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

's Altoona yards in

Altoona, Pennsylvania Altoona is a city in Blair County, Pennsylvania. It is the principal city of the Altoona Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). The population was 43,963 at the time of the 2020 Census, making it the eighteenth most populous city in Pennsylvania. T ...

. He also worked as a night watchman for the railroad. Piper published his first short story, "Time and Time Again", in 1947 in ''

Astounding Science Fiction ''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled ''Astounding Stories of Super-Science'', the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William C ...

''; it was adapted for the radio program '' Dimension X'' and first broadcast in 1951, and was re-produced for ''

X Minus One ''X Minus One'' is an American half-hour science fiction radio drama series that was broadcast from April 24, 1955, to January 9, 1958, in various timeslots on NBC. Known for high production values in adapting stories from the leading American a ...

'' in 1956. He was primarily a short story author until 1961, when he made a productive, if short-lived, foray into novels. He collected guns and wrote one mystery, '' Murder in the Gunroom''. In 1964, his career apparently on the skids, and prevented by reticence and his libertarian principles from asking anyone to assist him with his financial difficulties, Piper committed suicide. The exact date of his death is unknown; the last entry in his diary was dated November 5 ("Rain 0930"), and according to his Pennsylvania death certificate his body was found on November 8. According to

Jerry Pournelle Jerry Eugene Pournelle (; August 7, 1933 – September 8, 2017) was an American scientist in the area of operations research and human factors research, a science fiction writer, essayist, journalist, and one of the first bloggers. In the 1960s ...

's introduction to '' Little Fuzzy'', Piper shut off all the utilities to his apartment, put painter's drop-cloths over the walls and floor, and took his own life with a handgun from his collection. In his suicide note, he gave an explanation that "I don't like to leave messes when I go away, but if I could have cleaned up any of this mess, I wouldn't be going away. H. Beam Piper." Some biographers attribute his act to financial problems, others to family problems; Pournelle wrote that Piper felt burdened by financial hardships in the wake of a divorce, and the mistaken perception that his career was foundering (his agent had died without notifying him of multiple sales). Editor George H. Scithers, who knew Piper socially, has stated that Piper wanted to spite the ex-wife he despised: by killing himself, Piper voided his

life insurance Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the dea ...

policy, and prevented her from collecting. An unpublished story, "Only the Arquebus", was missing after his suicide; it is probable that he destroyed it along with many of his personal papers. His output was eventually purchased by Ace Science Fiction and reprinted in a set of paperbacks in the early 1980s. Many of these have since gone out of print, though his two best-known arcs were again reprinted by Ace in 1998 and 2001. Late in his career, Piper corresponded with Pournelle, who was the Ace editor who helped reprint some of his novels. Many of his earlier copyrights have been allowed to lapse, permitting

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...

to distribute his work online.

Themes and hallmarks

Piper's stories fall into two groups: stark

space opera Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, with use of melodramatic, risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, it features technological and soc ...

, such as ''

Space Viking ''Space Viking'' is a science fiction novel by American writer H. Beam Piper, set in his Terro-Human future history. It tells the story of one man's search for his wife's murderer and its unexpected consequences. The story was originally seria ...

'', or stories of cultural conflict or misunderstanding, such as ''Little Fuzzy'' or the ''Paratime'' stories. A running theme in his work is that history repeats itself; past events will have direct and clear analogues in the future. The novel ''Uller Uprising'' is the clearest example of this, being based on the

Sepoy Mutiny The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the for ...

. A similar example is the very title of ''Space Viking'', although the novel is not a direct reinterpretation of a specific historical precedent. A later theme in the book involves the takeover of a planet in a manner reminiscent of the rise of Adolf Hitler. Piper's characterization was rooted in the notion of the self-reliant man, able to take care of himself and both willing and able to tackle any situation that might arise. This is exemplified in a bit of dialogue in his

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

"Oomphel in the Sky" (1960):

He actually knows what has to be done and how to do it, and he's going right ahead and doing it, without holding a dozen conferences and round-table discussions and giving everybody a fair and equal chance to foul things up for him.

As a result, his stories tend towards the heroic, and the conflict is usually driven externally. Piper was interested in

general semantics General semantics is concerned with how events translate to perceptions, how they are further modified by the names and labels we apply to them, and how we might gain a measure of control over our own cognitive, emotional, and behavioral respons ...

. It is explicitly mentioned in '' Murder in the Gunroom'', and its principles, such as awareness of the limitations of knowledge, are apparent in his later work.

Major storylines

Terro-Human Future History

The Terro-Human Future History is Piper's detailed account of the next 6,000 years of human history. 1942, the year the first fission reactor was constructed, is defined as the year 1 A.E. (Atomic Era). In 1973, a

nuclear war Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a theoretical military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear wa ...

devastates the planet, eventually laying the groundwork for the emergence of a Terran Federation, once humanity goes into space and develops antigravity technology. The story "The Edge of the Knife" (collected in ''

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

'') occurs slightly before the war, and involves a man who sees flashes of the future. It links many key elements of Piper's series. Most of the stories take place during the next millennium, during the age of the two Federations. Most notable among these novels are the three Fuzzy novels (starting with '' Little Fuzzy''), which concern the recognition of a peculiar alien species as sapient, and the efforts of the two species to learn to live together on the Fuzzies' home world of Zarathustra. The Federation collapses in the System States War and following Interstellar Wars (a bit of which can be seen in '' The Cosmic Computer''), leading to a lengthy

interregnum An interregnum (plural interregna or interregnums) is a period of discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one monarch and the next (coming from Latin '' ...

, during which there is no central human power. ''

'' is set in this chaotic period. The interregnum ends with the founding of the first Empire. At least five empires rule humanity during the next four thousand years, but only a handful of short stories (collected in ''

'') depict this period. Piper generally portrays these empires as benign, ruled by

enlightened despot Enlightened absolutism (also called enlightened despotism) refers to the conduct and policies of European absolute monarchs during the 18th and early 19th centuries who were influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment, espousing them to enhance ...

s. Piper's future history resembles in some ways

Isaac Asimov yi, יצחק אזימאװ , birth_date = , birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR , spouse = , relatives = , children = 2 , death_date = , death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. , nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (192 ...

's '' Foundation Trilogy'', and was probably influenced by it, especially since both authors wrote for

John W. Campbell John Wood Campbell Jr. (June 8, 1910 – July 11, 1971) was an American science fiction writer and editor. He was editor of ''Astounding Science Fiction'' (later called ''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'') from late 1937 until his death ...

Paratime

A much shorter series of

stories is Piper's

Paratime The Paratime series written by H. Beam Piper and subsequently by John F. Carr consists of several short stories, one novella, and one novel (all but one of these works were originally published in ''Astounding Science Fiction'' under the editors ...

sequence, collected in ''Paratime'', followed by the novel ''Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen''. These stories concern the Paratime Police, a law enforcement outfit from a parallel world which has learned how to move between timelines. They jealously guard the secret, even as they mine other worlds for their resources. Notably, it appears that humans are in fact

Martian Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, has appeared as a setting in works of fiction since at least the mid-1600s. It became the most popular celestial object in fiction in the late 1800s as the Moon was evidently lifeless. At the time, the pr ...

refugees who escaped a calamity on their home planet and migrated to Earth. Unlike many alternate histories, these stories tend to focus on points of divergence far back in the past. For instance, ''Lord Kalvan'' involves a police officer who is accidentally transported to a world where the ancestors of modern Europeans failed to move into Europe. Instead, the nomadic tribes migrated across Asia and into North America. The people living on the eastern coast of North America in this novel settled the area from the west, and still live in a medieval society. Many readers point towards the short story "Genesis" (anthologized in '' The Worlds of H. Beam Piper'') to suggest that the Terro-Human Future History universe is in fact an alternate world in the Paratime universe, where the Martians' escape from Mars resulted in their forgetting their heritage and having to start over. However, in several letters to friends and in an article published in a fan magazine, Piper himself listed the true Paratime stories, and he never identified "Genesis" as one. On the other hand, "He Walked Around The Horses" is referenced in "Police Operation" so that is a sidebar story to the series. By the same token, in spite of Piper's lack of explicit stipulation, " Omnilingual" (1957) — which concerns a near-future scientific expedition to Mars under the aegis of an international Earth government — may also be a Paratime story. The scientists and scholars involved in this effort are found ''

in medias res A narrative work beginning ''in medias res'' (, "into the middle of things") opens in the midst of the plot (cf. ''ab ovo'', ''ab initio''). Often, exposition is bypassed and filled in gradually, through dialogue, flashbacks or description of pa ...

'' excavating the ruins of the advanced human civilization which had been gradually destroyed on the fourth planet some 50,000 years before. In "Omnilingual" there is no mention of the northern hemisphere's thermonuclear devastation as a result of the

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

"cold war" kindled into an orgy of

extermination Extermination or exterminate may refer to: * Pest control, elimination of insects or vermin * Genocide, extermination—in whole or in part—of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group * Homicide or murder in general * "Exterminate!", the ...

by the impact of an antimatter meteorite, which was detailed by Piper in his story "The Answer" (1959). Throughout the Terro-Human Future History, that conflict and the destruction wrought across the nations of the First and

Second World The Second World is a term originating during the Cold War for the industrial socialist states that were under the influence of the Soviet Union. In the first two decades following World War II, 19 communist states emerged; all of these were at ...

s is pervasive as an explanation of the precise manner in which the home planet's culture (by way of South America, Australia, and South Africa in particular) comes to influence the planets of Piper's Federation and Empire.

Published works

Terro-Human Future History

Federation series

* ''Uller Uprising'' (1952) (refers to the 1983 edition) * ''Four-Day Planet'' (1961) (refers to the 1981 edition: ''Four-Day Planet/Lone Star planet'') * ''The Cosmic Computer'' (1963, originally ''Junkyard Planet'') (refers to the 1983 edition.) Based on the short story "Graveyard of Dreams", published in ''Galaxy Magazine'' February 1958. * ''

'' (1963) (refers to the 1983 edition) * ''

Federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-gover ...

'' (1981) * ''

'' (1981) (refers to the May 1983 Mass Market Paperback Ed.)

Fuzzy series

# '' Little Fuzzy'' (1962) , # ''Fuzzy Sapiens'' (1964, originally ''The Other Human Race'') # ''Fuzzies and Other People'' (1984)

Collection

* ''The Complete Fuzzy'' (1998) (pbk.)--collecting ''Little Fuzzy'', ''Fuzzy Sapiens'', and ''Fuzzies and other People''. * ''The Fuzzy Papers'' (September 1980) (pbk.) --collecting ''Little Fuzzy'' and ''Fuzzy Sapiens''. * ''The Fuzzy Papers'' (?) ISBN ? (hdbk.)--collecting ''Little Fuzzy'' and ''Fuzzy Sapiens''.

Paratime

* ''Paratime'' (1981) * ''The Complete Paratime'' (2001) * ''

Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen ''Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen'' is a 1965 science fiction novel by American writer H. Beam Piper; it is part of his Paratime series of stories, and was expanded by John F. Carr to form the Kalvan series (with some installments co-written by Carr ...

'' (1965, reprinted 1984), . * Short stories: " Last Enemy"; "Time Crime" in two parts; "Temple Trouble"; "Police Operation"; and according to some, "Genesis". "He Walked Around The Horses" is referenced in "Police Operation" so that is a sidebar story to the tale.

Other novels

* '' Murder in the Gunroom'' (1953, not science fiction but rather a murder mystery) * ''Crisis In 2140'' (1957, with John J. McGuire, half of Ace Double D-227). This was first serialized in Astounding Science Fiction as ''Null-ABC'', copyright 1953. * ''Lone Star Planet'' (1958, originally '' A Planet for Texans'') with John J. McGuire . The work is a clear and obvious tribute to H.L. Mencken's essay
The Malevolent Jobholder
(from ''The American Mercury'', June 1924), in which Mencken proposed

...that it shall be no longer '' malum in se'' for a citizen to pummel, cowhide, kick, gouge, cut, wound, bruise, maim, burn, club,
bastinado Foot whipping, falanga/falaka or bastinado is a method of inflicting pain and humiliation by administering a beating on the soles of a person's bare feet. Unlike most types of flogging, it is meant more to be painful than to cause actual injury ...
, flay, or even lynch a overnmentjobholder, and that it shall be '' malum prohibitum'' only to the extent that the punishment exceeds the jobholder's deserts. The amount of this excess, if any, may be determined very conveniently by a petit jury, as other questions of guilt are now determined.

In 1999, the novel won the

Prometheus Award The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society. American author and activist L. Neil Smith established the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newl ...

, Hall of Fame Award for Best Classic Libertarian SF Novel. This tongue-in-cheek tale features a planet of Texans whose dinosaur-sized cattle have to be herded with tanks, and whose system of government derives its character from Mencken's essay. The protagonist is an insubordinate junior diplomat who is appointed as ambassador to this cantankerously independent planet in the hope that he will be assassinated (as the previous ambassador had been), thereby justifying the forcible invasion and conquest of the Texans. The crux of the story is the trial of the previous ambassador's assassins—actually paid killers hired by an alien empire also planning invasion—under a legal system that considers the killing of a practicing politician to be justifiable homicide. * ''First Cycle'' (1982,

Michael Kurland Michael Joseph Kurland (born March 1, 1938) is an American author, best known for his works of science fiction and detective fiction. Kurland lives in San Luis Obispo, California. Writing career Kurland's early career was devoted to works of sc ...

expanded this from a Piper outline)

Short stories

* " The Answer" (1959) * "Crossroads of Destiny" (1959) *
Day of the Moron
(1951) * "Dearest" (1951) * "The Edge of the Knife" (1957) * "Flight From Tomorrow" (1950) * "Genesis" (1951) *
Graveyard of Dreams
(1958) * "

He Walked Around the Horses "He Walked Around the Horses" is a science fiction short story by American writer H. Beam Piper. It is initially based on the true story of diplomat Benjamin Bathurst, who mysteriously disappeared in 1809. It was first published in the April 1948 ...

" (1948), published in Kingsley Amis, ''The Golden Age of Science Fiction'' (1981) * "Hunter Patrol" (1959, with John J. McGuire) (1959) * " The Keeper" (1957) * " Last Enemy" (1950) * "The Mercenaries" (1950) * "Ministry of Disturbance" (with John J. McGuire) (1958) * "Naudsonce" (1962) * " Omnilingual" (1957) * "Oomphel in the Sky" (1960) * "Operation R.S.V.P." (1951) * "Police Operation" (1948) * "Rebel Raider" (1950) * " The Return" (1954) (with John J. McGuire) * "The Return" (1960) (with John J. McGuire) expanded version of the original * "A Slave is a Slave" (1962) * "Temple Trouble" (1951) * "Time and Time Again" (1947) * "Time Crime" (1955) * " When in the Course—" (1981)

Collections

* '' The Worlds of H. Beam Piper'' (1983)

Piper's Fuzzies in books by other authors

* ''Fuzzy Bones'', by William Tuning - Sequel to ''Little Fuzzy & Fuzzy Sapiens'' 1981 * ''Golden Dream'', by

Ardath Mayhar Ardath Frances Hurst Mayhar (February 20, 1930 – February 1, 2012) was an American writer and poet. Mayhar wrote over 60 books ranging from science fiction to horror to young adult to historical to westerns, Some of her novels appeared under ...

- based on works by H. Beam Piper & William Tuning 1982 * ''Fuzzy Nation'', by John Scalzi * '' Fuzzy Ergo Sum'', by Wolfgang Diehr * ''Caveat Fuzzy'', by Wolfgang Diehr (A sequel to ''Fuzzy Ergo Sum'') * ''The Fuzzy Conundrum'', by John F. Carr and Wolfgang Diehr

Piper's "Terro-Human History" books by other authors

* ''The Last Space Viking'', by John F. Carr and Mike Robertson * ''Space Viking's Throne'', by John F. Carr (A sequel to the ''Last Space Viking'') * ''The Way of the Sword-Worlds'', by John F. Carr (A prequel to ''

'' involving Otto Harkaman, coming in 2021) * '' Return of Space Viking'', by John F. Carr (A direct sequel to ''Space Viking'', confirmed by the author for late 2021 and is the long-awaited book once announced by ''

'') * ''Rise of the Terran Federation'', Edited by John F. Carr (A new anthology due in 2016) * ''Cosmic Computer Legacy: The Tides of Chaos'', by Dietmar Wehr (A sequel to ''Cosmic Computer'') * ''Space Viking Legacy: The Tanith Gambit'', by Dietmar Wehr (A sequel to ''Space Viking'' released as an ebook in 2013) * ''Space Viking Legacy: Book II: The Loki Gambit'', by Dietmar Wehr (released as an ebook in 2013) * ''Prince of Tanith: A Space Viking Novel (The Tanith Series)by Terry Mancour (A sequel to ''Space Viking'' on Amazon Kindle) * ''Princess Valerie's War: A Space Viking Novel (The Tanith Series Book II) by Terry Mancour on Amazon Kindle

"Paratime" books by other authors

* ''Great King's War,'' by John F. Carr and Roland Green * ''Kalvan Kingmaker'', by John F. Carr * ''The Siege of Tos-Hostigos'', by John F. Carr * ''The Fireseed Wars'', by John F. Carr * ''Gunpowder God'', by John F. Carr * ''The Hos-Bletha Affair'', by John F. Carr and Wolfgang Diehr ''The Paratime Trilogy'' * ''Time Crime'', by H. Beam Piper and John F. Carr (Carr expanded the previous novella with a third act)

References

Jo Walton Jo Walton (born 1964) is a Welsh and Canadian fantasy and science fiction writer and poet. She is best known for the fantasy novel '' Among Others'', which won the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 2012, and '' Tooth and Claw'', a Victorian era nov ...

Lengthy commentary/analysis by Joseph T Major on ''Space Viking''.
*

by Bud Webster
The Cosmic Computer
a
Standard Ebooks

The H. Beam Piper Memorial Site

Books by Piper, H. Beam
Project Gutenberg. {{DEFAULTSORT:Piper, H. Beam 1904 births 1964 deaths 1964 suicides 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers American alternate history writers American male novelists American male short story writers American science fiction writers Novelists from Pennsylvania People from Altoona, Pennsylvania Pulp fiction writers Suicides by firearm in Pennsylvania

Biography

Themes and hallmarks

Major storylines

Terro-Human Future History

Paratime

Published works

Terro-Human Future History

Federation series

Fuzzy series

Collection

Paratime

Other novels

Short stories

Collections

Piper's Fuzzies in books by other authors

Piper's "Terro-Human History" books by other authors

"Paratime" books by other authors

References

External links