PIPER, H(orace) Beam

(1904-1964)

   US writer and gun collector, employed as a detective on the Pennsylvania Railroad until made redundant in the mid-1950s; his first name is not known for sure, and may have been Henry. Though he wrote for other genres, he is best remembered for his sf, much of which appeared in ASF from 1947, when he began with "Time and Time Again". Though he sharedJohn W. CAMPBELL Jr's political views, and his sense of the appropriate kind of story in which to propound them, it is probably wrong to think of HBP as a mouthpiece for the great editor: he was (in the end tragically)his own man. His first sf novels - Crisis in 2140 (1953 ASF as "Null ABC"; 1957) and A Planet for Texans (1958), both with John J. MCGUIRE - arestraightforward adventures, one set in a USA that has revolted from literacy for fear of its consequences, the other on a planet set up like a Western.Much of HBP's work fits very loosely into what has been called theTerro-Human future- HISTORY sequence, though large gaps remained at his death. The Federation tales - ostensibly embedded within the larger series - can be read as self-contained, and themselves encompass the Fuzzy books.Federation stories include Four-Day Planet (1961), Junkyard Planet (1963; vt The Cosmic Computer 1964), Space Viking (1963) and 2 posthumous collections, Federation (coll 1981) and Empire (coll 1981); of these stories "Omnilingual" (1957 ASF) is perhaps the finest (LINGUISTICS). The Fuzzy series, in which HBP's enterprising clarity shows to best advantage,includes Little Fuzzy (1962) and The Other Human Race (1964; vt Fuzzy Sapiens 1976; the original, singularly stupid title was the choice of thebook's first publisher), both assembled as The Fuzzy Papers (omni 1977), and the long-lost Fuzzies and Other People (1984). The small, joyful, sapient Fuzzies are natives of the planet Zarathustra (COLONIZATION OF OTHER WORLDS). The first two volumes - which feature some grippingcourtroom-drama sequences - centre on the attempts of the mining corporation which runs Zarathustra first to prevent recognition of Fuzzy INTELLIGENCE (so as to retain mining rights) and then, when it has becomeinevitable, to exploit this recognition. The third volume resolves the conflict between the company and those humans who are fathering the Fuzzies, whose neotenous, childlike nature (Bjorn KURTEN) both demandsthe attention of adults and reveals HBP's skill at the juvenile. The series was continued in Fuzzy Bones * (1981) by William TUNING and Golden Dream: A Fuzzy Odyssey * (1984) by Ardath MAYHAR.A second distinctsequence, the Paratime Police/Lord Kalvan tales, most published originally in ASF, were assembled as Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen (fixup 1965; vt Gunpowder God 1978 UK) and Paratime (coll 1981). The series was continuedin Great Kings' War * (1985) by Roland GREEN and John F. CARR, the latter also editing The Worlds of H. Beam Piper (coll 1983) and presenting his work in other contexts. As a series of ALTERNATE-WORLDS variations, the sequence showed HPB in perhaps excessively argumentative vein, the alternate-world structure allowing him great latitude to express his political feelings.Not in general an innovative writer, HBP was at his best when he applied an ASF-derived firmness of setting and plausibility of characterization to emotionally arousing adventure plots in which political agendas existed only as subtexts. In 1964, his career apparently on the skids, and prevented by reticence and LIBERTARIAN principles from asking anyone to help him with temporary financial difficulties, he committed suicide. He died in his prime.

   JC

   Other works: Murder in the Gun Room (1953), HBP's first book, a detective novel; First Cycle (1982), an HBP outline expanded by Michael KURLAND; Uller Uprising (in The Petrified Planet (anth 1953) ed Theodore Pratt; 1983), part of the first SHARED-WORLD anthology in GENRE SF; Four-Day Planet \& Lonestar Planet (omni 1979), comprising two novels, the first under its original title and the second being A Planet for Texans under a vt.

   About the author: Henry Beam Piper (1985 chap) by Gordon BENSON Jr.

   See also: ALIENS; ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM IN SF; CRIME AND PUNISHMENT; NUCLEAR POWER; PASTORAL; SPACE OPERA.