This is short biography of Piers Anthony. I want to tell you a little more about him than what passes for a "bio" inside the jacket cover of most of his books. I have borrowed some of this information from his autobiography Bio of an Ogre and some from his author's notes in his other books. If you want a more comprehensive look at his life, I would certainly suggest buying the book. It is informative and interesting reading. This page is under construction, I will add more to it as time permits...
Piers Anthony was born on August 6th, 1934, in Oxford, England. It was not necessary, in England in 1934, to name a baby instantly; there was a grace period of a number of days. As the deadline loomed, his mother simply gave all the names she could think of: Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob. The child moved to America, where it took three years and five schools to graduate him from the first grade, because he couldn't learn to read. It was thus fated that he become a proofreader, an English teacher, or a writer. He tried them all, along with a dozen other employments-- and liked only the least successful one. So he lopped off half of his name, sent his wife out to earn their living, and concentrated on writing. That was the key to success, publishers would print material by an author whose name was short enough.
His first effort at writing was a story called Evening that was rejected by Galaxy magazine. After many years and many submissions he was finally published... he sold his first story in 1962 and had his first novel, Chton, published in 1967. His first fantasy in the Magic of Xanth Trilogy, A Spell for Chameleon, won the August Derleth Fantasy Award as the best novel in 1977. He has written over 110 novels in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and martial arts.
He was married in 1956, right after graduating from Goddard College (Vermont) with a B.A., to Carol Ann Marble. Their daughter Penny was born eleven years later, and their final daughter Cheryl in 1970. That was the beginning of a whole new existence, because little girls like animals. In 1978 they bought nice horses, and that experience, coupled with knee injuries in judo class, became Split Infinity. Piers Anthony is not the protagonist- he says he lacks the style-- but Penny's horse Blue is the mundane model for the unicorn Neysa. After a stint in the Army he settled in Florida where he lives today.
Piers is a vegetarian, an agnostic, and a conscientious objector to war.
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