Piers Anthony facts for kids

Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob, born on August 6, 1934, is an American author. He writes exciting science fiction and fantasy books. He uses the name Piers Anthony for his books. He is famous for his long series of novels about a magical place called Xanth.

Many of his books have been on The New York Times list of best-selling books. A cool fact about him is that he has published a book for every letter of the alphabet! His books range from Anthonology to Zombie Lover.

Piers Anthony's Early Life

Piers Anthony's parents, Alfred and Norma Jacob, were students at Oxford University. In 1936, they paused their studies to help people during the Spanish Civil War. They set up a food kitchen for children in Barcelona. Piers and his sister stayed in England with their grandparents and a nanny.

His father, Alfred Jacob, was born in America. In 1940, the family moved to the United States. In 1941, they settled in a simple community in Winhall, Vermont. Here, young Piers met the author Scott Nearing, who was a neighbor. His parents went back to their studies. His father later became a professor of languages.

Piers went to several schools. He graduated from Goddard College in Vermont in 1956. He has shared that he did not enjoy high school. He felt like an outsider there.

Marriage and Starting a Career

Piers Anthony met his first wife, Carol Marble, in college. They got married in 1956, the same year he finished college. He worked as a handyman for a while. In 1957, he joined the United States Army. He did this because his wife was expecting a baby. They needed health care and a steady income.

During his two years in the army, he became a U.S. citizen in 1958. He also worked as an editor and cartoonist for his army newspaper. After the army, he taught briefly at Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg, Florida. Then, he decided to try to become a full-time writer.

Piers and Carol made a deal. If he could sell a story within one year, she would keep working to support him. If not, he would give up his dream of writing. He managed to get a short story published just in time! He says his wife made his writing career possible. He advises new writers to have another job to support themselves at first.

Piers Anthony's Writing Style

Piers Anthony has sometimes changed publishers. He did this when he felt editors were changing his work too much. He has also won legal cases against publishers about money. Anthony helps new writers by sharing information about publishers online. He won an award in 2003 for helping the electronic publishing community. His website also won an award for helping writers.

His popular Xanth book series has been considered for movies. It also inspired a DOS video game called Companions of Xanth. There was even a board game based on Xanth by Mayfair Games.

Anthony's novels usually end with a special "Author's Note" chapter. In these notes, he talks about his life and how it relates to the book. He often shares letters from readers. He also discusses real-world events that influenced his stories.

Since about the year 2000, Anthony has written his books using a Linux computer system. In 2011, his Xanth series was ranked among the top science fiction and fantasy books in an NPR readers' poll.

Piers Anthony in Other Media

A radio show called This American Life once featured a story about Piers Anthony. The story was about two boys, Logan and Andy, who loved his books. Logan, at age 12, was obsessed with reading Anthony's novels. When he was 22, he met Andy and found out they both loved the same author.

Andy explained that he used Anthony's fantasy books to escape from his difficult school and home life. In 1987, when he was 15, Andy even tried to run away to Florida to live with Piers Anthony. The radio story included Anthony's thoughts on these events.

Naomi King, the daughter of famous writer Stephen King, enjoyed Piers Anthony's books. She liked the pixies, imps, and fairies in them. She told her father she was not interested in his "vampires" and "slushy crawling things." Because of this, Stephen King wrote The Eyes of the Dragon, a fantasy book for his daughter. It was first published in 1984.

But What of Earth? Controversy

Early in his career, there was a problem with his book But What of Earth?. An editor asked Anthony to write this novel. Anthony finished the book, and the editor bought it. However, the editor then hired another writer to make changes to the book.

Anthony felt the published book was very different from his original story. He thought the changes made the book worse. The published book listed both Anthony and the other writer as authors. Anthony eventually got the rights to his original story back. In 1989, he republished his own version of But What of Earth?. This new edition included notes from Anthony. He explained all the changes that had been made to his story.

Piers Anthony's Personal Life

Piers Anthony and his first wife, Carol Ann Marble Jacob, had two daughters, Penelope "Penny" Carolyn and Cheryl. Penny had one child and sadly passed away in 2009 from skin cancer. Carol Ann passed away at home on October 3, 2019. She had been battling a long-term illness.

On April 22, 2020, Piers Anthony married MaryLee Boyance. He lived on his tree farm in Florida until March 2023. Then, he sold his farm and moved to California. Piers Anthony is also a vegetarian.

Piers Anthony's Beliefs

Piers Anthony has shared his thoughts on religion. In 2004, he wrote on his website that he is agnostic. This means he believes that whether God exists is unknown. He also said he is closer to believing there is no God than believing there is one. In 2017, he stated he was more certain that God and an afterlife do not exist.

See also

In Spanish: Piers Anthony para niños