Writer Piers Anthony: biography, books

The writer Piers Anthony is known to many fans of science fiction and fantasy. A distinctive feature of his works on space travel has been an excellent justification for the events and phenomena that are taking place. Such a predominance of "scientific" over "science fiction" extremely pleases all thoughtful and serious readers, since it allows you to completely immerse yourself in a fictional, but such a real world.

However, the phenomenal popularity of a series of books in the genre of "fantasy" is due to fresh ideas, interesting story lines and, of course, an abundance of keen humor.

Writer Piers Anthony: biography and facts

The native land of the writer was England, or rather the city of Oxford. In 1934, Alfred Jacobs and Norma Sherlock became the parents of Pierce Anthony Dillingham Jacobs. During the first five years of his life, Pierce Anthony did not contact his mother at all, since his nurse was engaged in his upbringing. However, the peaceful life was replaced by the chaos of the civil war, which forced the family to move to Spain.

After the move, the parents of the future writer took up charity, however, they did not rest in Spain either. Franco came to power and his regime dictated new living conditions, under which the status of "suspicious alien" allowed to arrest and expel people from the country. That's what Pierce's father did.

Life in America

Like many disadvantaged and persecuted refugees from Europe, the writer's family hoped to find peace and happiness beyond the ocean. Therefore, Pierce Anthony and his family found themselves able to escape because of imprisonment and in 1940 fled to the United States.

Here, the future writer was accepted for creative courses at the University of Goddard and successfully graduated. While studying, Pierce fell in love with his classmate Carol Ann Mabel, and after completing the training they were married.

The complex political situation and postwar crisis did not allow Pierce to find a decent place for employment, and he decided to enlist in the army. There he was until 1959, during which time he managed to become an American citizen.

Education and first job

After the period of service was exhausted, Pierce Anthony settled in Florida's St. Pittsburgh, where for a short time he worked as a draftsman. The firm that took it to work, was developing new communication systems.

Wanting to get a decent education, the writer became a student at the University of North Florida, from which he graduated as a certified teacher.

There would be no happiness, but misfortune ...

For the first time, Piers Anthony took up his pen to express his emotions in connection with the unexpected death of his close friend - a cousin. She was very young and, in addition, younger than Pierce. This seemed especially unfair to him. However, the tragic events not only did not lead to the isolation and embitterment of the young man, but even contributed to the formation and flowering of his literary style.

After experiencing the shock, Pierce began to perceive life as a valuable gift and tried to make full use of all his capabilities. By the way, a special protest against death was his commitment to vegetarianism.

Start of writing

The first publication of the writer was a story that appeared on the pages of the magazine and was called "The possibility of repentance." However, popularity comes to him only four years later, as a result of winning a literary contest. The work that brought Peirce to the world of recognized writers and brought him a prize of five thousand dollars was the novel "Sos nicknamed Rope."

The basis for the book was a novel written by Pierce as his thesis work. Not stopping at the achieved, the writer Piers Anthony, his photo is higher, in the same year he releases another book in the science fiction genre.

In subsequent years, from the pen of the writer comes a lot of interesting novels, distinguished by an innovative, atypical story, freshness and boldness of hypotheses.

Popular literary series

The writer was most famous for the cycles of books united by a common plot, acting heroes or a place of development of events. In total, he wrote about thirteen cycles. Some of them consist of just a couple of novels, others include a rather impressive number of books.

Among them is worth noting "Spell for a chameleon" - a series, which in 1977 began to create a writer Piers Anthony. The list of books of this cycle today has at least twenty novels. Among them:

• "Source of magic."
• "Demons do not sleep."
• "Harpy Time".
• "Faun's games" and many others.

The place of action here is a magical country called Xanth. For its inhabitants magic and magic are not something out of the ordinary, as they meet at every step. Bright, witty dialogues, intricate plot twists, and an abundance of unimaginable fantastic elements made Xanth native and beloved for many readers.

We can safely say that this series has become one of the best examples of the genre, which today is called a humorous fantasy.

Joint works

Some books, published with the name of Pierce Anthony on the cover, also contain the names of his partners. For example, the novel "Through the Ice" was published in 1989. Pierce wrote it, based on an unfinished manuscript, sent to him by one of the admirers. As it turned out, the author of the work, Robert Cornuis, died tragically shortly after he sent the manuscript to the writer.

Since 1970, Pierce has worked with Roberto Fuentes for several years. Forty-year-old Roberto gave him the idea of creating heroes, wearing different belts and owning fantastic martial arts. The result was quite unexpected for both of them: despite his age, Roberto started writing, and Pierce started to study judo.

In addition, the literary series, created in collaboration with Roberto, has become extremely popular.

Currently, Pierce Anthony enjoys life and continues to successfully write in Florida in the company of his wife.