Editing Piers Anthony

{{Short description|English-American writer (born 1934)}}
{{Use American English|date=June 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2024}}
{{Infobox writer
| name        = Piers Anthony
| caption     =
| pseudonym   = Piers Anthony
| birth_name  = Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob
| birth_date  = {{birth date and age|1934|8|6|mf=y}}
| birth_place = [[Oxford]], England
| death_date  =
| death_place =
| education = [[Goddard College]] 
| spouse = {{Plainlist|
* {{marriage |Carol Marble |1956 |2019 |end=d.}}
* {{marriage |MaryLee Boyance|2020}}
}}
| children = 2
| parents = Alfred Jacob and Norma Jacob
| occupation  = [[Novelist]], [[short story writer]]
| nationality = American
| period      = 1956–present
| genre       = [[Science fiction]], [[Fantasy (genre)|fantasy]]
| subject     = 
| movement    =
| signature   =
| website     = {{URL|hipiers.com}}
| footnotes   =
}}
'''Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob''' (born August 6, 1934)<ref>Anthony, Piers. Bio of an Ogre, Ace Books, 1988. p 5</ref> is an American author in the [[science fiction]] and [[Fantasy (genre)|fantasy]] genres, publishing under the name '''Piers Anthony'''. He is best known for his [[:Category:Xanth books|long-running novel series]] set in the [[fictional realm]] of [[Xanth]].

Many of his books have appeared on [[The New York Times Best Seller list|''The 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, from ''[[Anthonology]]'' to ''[[Zombie Lover]]''.

==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>

==Marriage and early career==
Anthony met his future wife, Carol Marble, while both were attending college. They were married in 1956, the same year he graduated from [[Goddard College]], and he subsequently worked as a [[handyman]]. In 1957, Anthony decided to join the [[United 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<ref>{{cite book |last=Denney |first=Jim |title=Quit Your Day Job!: How to Sleep Late, Do What You Enjoy, and Make a Ton of Money as a Writer! |publisher=Quill Driver Books |year=2003 |page=24 |isbn=978-1-884956-04-1}}</ref> and was editor and cartoonist for his battalion's newspaper.

After completing military service, he briefly taught at [[Admiral Farragut Academy]] in [[St. Petersburg, Florida]] before deciding to try to become a full-time writer.<ref>Anthony, Piers. Bio of an Ogre, Ace Books, 1988. p. 284</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Anthony|first=Piers|title=Anthonology|year=1985|publisher=Tom Doherty Associates|location=New York, NY|isbn=978-0-312-93027-1|edition=1st|page=[https://archive.org/details/anthonology00anth/page/10 10]|type=Hardcover|chapter=Introduction to the story "Possible to Rue"|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/anthonology00anth/page/10}}</ref>

==Writing==
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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/piers-anthony/|title= Book Series in Order Profiles: Piers Anthony|date= 21 February 2015|access-date=4 March 2018}}</ref> Anthony maintains an Internet Publishers Survey in the interest of helping aspiring writers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hipiers.com/publishing.html|title=Piers Anthony's Internet Publishing|access-date=31 October 2005|archive-date=9 May 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509122044/http://www.hipiers.com/publishing.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> For this service, he won the 2003 "Friend of EPIC" award for service to the electronic publishing community.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.epicauthors.org/epicon.html|title=EPIC – Electronically Published Internet Connection|website=www.epicauthors.org|access-date=2018-02-03}}</ref>  His website won the ''Special Recognition for Service to Writers'' award from Preditors and Editors, an author's guide to publishers and writing services.<ref>Gogolewski, Kathe. [http://www.tri-studio.com/files/PIERS_ANTHONY_EBOOK_PDF.pdf "An Interview With Piers Anthony for the 2006 Muse Online Writers Conference."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717095755/http://www.tri-studio.com/files/PIERS_ANTHONY_EBOOK_PDF.pdf |date=17 July 2011 }} Retrieved 21 December 2010.</ref>

His popular novel series Xanth has been optioned for movies.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.austinchronicle.com/screens/2004-12-10/241547/|title=Film News}}</ref> It inspired the [[MS-DOS]] video game ''[[Companions of Xanth]]'', by [[Legend Entertainment]]. The same series also spawned the board game ''Xanth'' by [[Mayfair Games]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/mfg-459-xanth-boardgame-1991 | title=MFG 459 Xanth Boardgame | year=1991 }}</ref>

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 a [[Linux]] environment.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-11-16 |title=The Power Base – Piers Anthony: An Ogre and a Penguin - The Power Base |url=http://www.thepowerbase.com/2011/11/piers-anthony-an-ogre-and-a-penguin/ |access-date=2025-05-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121027043200/http://www.thepowerbase.com/2011/11/piers-anthony-an-ogre-and-a-penguin/ |archive-date=October 27, 2012 }}</ref>

Anthony's ''Xanth'' series was ranked No. 99 in a 2011 [[NPR]] readers' poll of best science fiction and fantasy books.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/139085843/your-picks-top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books | title=Your Picks: Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books | publisher=[[NPR]] | date=11 August 2011 | access-date=17 March 2015}}</ref>

==In other media==
Act One of episode 470 of the radio program ''[[This 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 in [[Buffalo, 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.<ref name=tal/>

==''But What of Earth?''==
Early in Anthony's literary career, there was a dispute surrounding the original publication (1976) of ''But What of Earth?''.  Editor [[Roger Elwood]] commissioned the novel for his nascent science-fiction line [[Laser Books]]. According to Anthony, he completed ''But 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 of ''But 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 original ''But What of Earth?'' in an annotated edition through [[Tor 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.<ref>{{cite book | first=Piers | last=Anthony | title=But What of Earth? | date=15 July 1989 | publisher=Tor Books | isbn=978-0812530988 | url=https://archive.org/details/butwhatofearth00pier }}</ref>

==Criticism==
Some activists 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 underage sexuality and eroticism within Anthony's work.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Chaplinsky |first1=Joshua |title=Themes of Pedophilia in the Works of Piers Anthony |url=https://litreactor.com/columns/themes-of-pedophilia-in-the-works-of-piers-anthony |website=litreactor.com |access-date=13 January 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Anthony, Piers 1934– |encyclopedia=Children's Literature Review |date=30 December 2021  |publisher=encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/children/academic-and-educational-journals/anthony-piers-1934 |access-date=13 January 2022 }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Anthony, Piers |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Fantasy |year=1997 |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/fe/anthony_piers |access-date=13 January 2022 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Piers Anthony Unbound |url=https://news.slashdot.org/story/02/07/14/1854209/piers-anthony-unbound |website=Slashdot |date=15 July 2002 |access-date=13 January 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Xanthmaker: Interview With Piers Anthony |url=http://www.moongadget.com/xanth/index.html |website=Moongadget |access-date=13 January 2022}}</ref>

==Personal life==
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 with [[chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy]] (CIDP).<ref>{{cite web |last=Anthony |first=Piers |date=1 November 2019 |url=http://www.hipiers.com/19nov.html|title=NoRemember 2019|publisher=HiPiers|access-date=14 May 2020}}</ref>

On April 22, 2020, he married MaryLee Boyance.<ref>{{cite web |last=Anthony |first=Piers |date=1 May 2020 |url=http://www.hipiers.com/20may.html|title=Mayhem 2020|publisher=HiPiers|access-date=14 May 2020}}</ref> Anthony lived on his [[tree farm]] in Florida until March 2023, at which time he sold his farm and moved to California.<ref>{{cite web |last=Anthony |first=Piers |date=April 2024|title=2023 APull|url=https://hipiers.com/newsletter/2023-apull/}}</ref>

Anthony is a [[Vegetarianism|vegetarian]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Creativity Post {{!}} Piers Anthony |url=https://www.creativitypost.com/article/piers_anthony |access-date=2024-09-16 |website=The Creativity Post |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Religious beliefs ==
Regarding his religious beliefs, Anthony wrote in the October 2004 entry of his personal website, "I'm [[agnostic]], which means I regard the case as unproven, but I'm much closer to the [[atheist]] position than to the [[theist]] one."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.hipiers.com/04oct.html | first=Piers | last=Anthony | title=Ogre's Den: From the Desk of Piers Anthony, OctOgre 2004 | date=October 2004 | access-date=19 March 2015}}</ref> In 2017 he stated, "I am more certain about God and the Afterlife: they don't exist."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.hipiers.com/17may.html | first=Piers | last=Anthony | title=Ogre's Den: From the Desk of Piers Anthony, Mayhem 2017 | date=May 2017 | access-date=26 May 2016 | archive-date=26 March 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326024027/http://www.hipiers.com/17may.html | url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Bibliography==
{{Main|Piers Anthony bibliography}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote|Piers Anthony}}
* {{Official website|http://www.hipiers.com}}
* [https://us.macmillan.com/author/piersanthony Piers Anthony's page at Macmillan.com]
* [http://www.jitterbugfantasia.com/xanth/index.html Extensive 2005 Interview]
* {{ISFDB name|id=4|name=Piers Anthony}}
* {{IBList|type=author|id=79|name=Piers Anthony}}
*[https://archives.lib.usf.edu/repositories/2/resources/170 Piers Anthony Collection.]. University of South Florida. Special Collections.
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070622062016/http://www.lib.usf.edu/public/index.cfm?Pg=SpecialCollectionsTampa|title=Piers Anthony Manuscript Collection at the University of South Florida-Tampa}}
* {{IMDb name|id=1785717|name=Piers Anthony}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anthony, Piers}}
[[Category:1934 births]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century American short story writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century American short story writers]]
[[Category:Admiral Farragut Academy alumni]]
[[Category:American agnostics]]
[[Category:American fantasy writers]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:American male short story writers]]
[[Category:American science fiction writers]]
[[Category:English agnostics]]
[[Category:English emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:English fantasy writers]]
[[Category:English science fiction writers]]
[[Category:Goddard College alumni]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States]]
[[Category:Novelists from Florida]]
[[Category:United States Army soldiers]]
[[Category:Westtown School alumni]]
[[Category:Writers from Oxford]]