Editing Piers Anthony (section)

==Early life==
Anthony's parents, Alfred and Norma Jacob, were [[Quaker]] pacifists studying at Oxford University who interrupted their studies in 1936 to undertake relief work on behalf of the Quakers during the [[Spanish Civil War]], establishing a food kitchen for children in Barcelona.<ref name="mendlesohn">{{cite thesis|last=Mendlesohn|first=Farah|author-link=Farah Mendlesohn|title=Practicing Peace: Quaker Relief work in the Spanish Civil War|url=https://www.academia.edu/7263891|type=DPhil|publisher=[[University of York]]|year=1997|access-date=29 May 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Maul |first1=Daniel |title=The politics of neutrality: the American Friends Service Committee and the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939 |journal=European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire |date=2016-01-02 |volume=23 |issue=1–2 |pages=82–100 |doi=10.1080/13507486.2015.1121972|doi-access=free }}</ref> Piers and his sister were left in England in the care of their maternal grandparents and a nanny.<ref>Anthony, Piers.  ''How Precious Was That While: An Autobiography'', Tor Books (2001), p.12</ref> Alfred Jacob, although a British citizen, had been born in America near [[Philadelphia]], 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 near [[Winhall, Vermont]], where a young Piers made the acquaintance of radical author [[Scott Nearing]], a neighbor.<ref>Joly, Greg and Rebecca Lepkoff. ''Almost Utopia'', Vermont Historical Society, 2008.</ref> 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 in [[Goddard College]] in [[Vermont]] where he graduated in 1956.<ref>Anthony, Piers. Bio of an Ogre, Ace Books, 1988. p. 87</ref> On ''[[This 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".<ref name=tal>{{cite episode | url=http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/470/show-me-the-way | transcript=Transcript | transcript-url=http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/470/transcript | series=[[This American Life]] | title=470: Show Me The Way | date=27 July 2012 | access-date=27 March 2015}}</ref>