Talk:H. Beam Piper

What a difference a word makes
Changed "...which concern the recognition of a peculiar alien species as sentient." to "...which concern the recognition of a peculiar alien species as sapient." which reflects the word usage in the Fuzzy books.

H. Beam Piper was one of the few SF authors to not incorrectly use sentient to refer to intelligent, self aware beings.

OK, can anybody be more specific about what aspects of this article need to be cleaned up? - Gladmax

I have done some cleanup of the introduction and biography sections, including attributing the specifics of his suicide to Pournelle, who wrote about it in his introduction to the Ace reprint of Little Fuzzy. - Gladmax

Oops, I just noticed this: The introduction lists his day of death as 1964-11-11, while his bio lists it as 1964-11-09. which is correct? - gladmax

Apparently the date of his death is actually unknown, as his body was not discovered for some time. The last entry in his diary is November 5 ("Rain 0930"). Here's a report that his body was found on November 9. Here's a posting that mentions his last substantial diary entry, on November 4, about the 1964 presidential election. There may be other useful information in that list if someone wants to read it all. John F. Carr is apparently still working on his Piper biography, but given that he posted the first chapter in 1988, it may be a while. Still, the hostigos.com site is about Piper and is being kept up to date, so there is still hope. 192.35.100.1 01:19, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

I fixed the Project Gutenberg links as per the Project Gutenberg Linking Policy

Apparently a whole bunch of his books have recently gone back into print (according to amazon.com).

Actually most of his work is now public domain since the rights holder neglected to renew the copyrights. VanitasStation (talk) 21:07, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

comment
This was put in out-of-place, but maybe something can be said about Piper's beliefs in reincarnation and time.
 * "H. Beam Piper had a simple idea-that the world we live in was merely a reflection of possibilities that could be broken into segments based on major historical turning points. This was expressed in his PARATIME! series in no uncertain terms, making him unique in science fiction history in that IF the multiple worlds theory is proved, he has already given a method for delineation to identify recognizable groupings of multi-verse segments."

—wwoods 17:27, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

date of discovery of dead body
According to the Williamsport Sun-Gazette dated Mon, Nov. 9th, 1964, police discovered the body in the early morning of that same day. I would assume that the body was indeed found on the 9th.

Biographical material
I would strongly suggest that all statements in this article related to his suicide be sourced, to specific lines in specific reliable sources. while he is not living, its generally wise to not have unsourced, controversial statements, particularly relating to peoples intentions or motivations, in articles. i may try to source or remove some of them.Mercurywoodrose (talk) 07:19, 13 February 2010 (UTC)
 * See John Carr's introduction to Paratime for speculation about the link between H Beam's suicide and belief in reincarnation and parallel universes. --Michael C. Price talk 08:00, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

Impact
I don't know how widely influential science fiction RPGs are considered to be in pop culture, but Game Designers Workshop's "Traveller" space-opera RPG universe contains a number of Piper homages and references. Piper's "Sword Worlds," for example, are transplanted to a sector of the Solomani Rim, and the term "Space Viking" likewise puts in an appearance in some of the later material. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.41.40.24 (talk) 19:01, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

The unsigned commentator is correct about the use of the Sword Worlds in Traveller and Piper's books. Geraldshields11 (talk) 15:04, 4 July 2012 (UTC)
 * Not the "Solomani Rim" in Traveller, which is a sector of space near and surrounding Earth; but a colonial region in the "Spinward Marches", a sector very far from Earth, beyond Deneb, hundreds of light years further away. 2.31.164.21 (talk) 21:21, 31 July 2021 (UTC)

Also, in his book Space Viking, Piper uses the name Enterprise for the name of the pirate ship, which was the focus of the book. Geraldshields11 (talk) 12:46, 6 July 2012 (UTC)

First Name?
I recently read [| this article] which includes the paragraph:


 * "How confused was it? The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy, comp. by Donald H. Tuck (Advent, 1978); The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, ed. by Peter Nicholls (Granada Publishing, 1979)); Dictionary of Literary Biography. V.8. Twentieth-Century American Science Fiction Writers. Pt.2, M-Z, ed. by David Cowart and Thomas L. Wymer (Gale Research Co., 1981); and Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers, 3rd Edition, ed. by Noelle Watson and Paul E. Schellinger (St. James Press, 1991) – all reputable reference books – give Piper's full name as Henry Beam Piper and the date of his death as November 11, 1964. But Federation, a collection of some of Piper's short stories published by Ace Books in February 1981, contains an introduction by Piper collector and expert John F. Carr giving his full name as Horace Beam Piper, and going into some detail of his death on November 9, 1964. The Library of Congress and most public library cataloging systems based upon LC's also list Horace as Piper's first name."

I can confirm the introduction of Federation does have this, but I've been unable to navigate the Library of Congress website to find their entry for Piper. Can anyone try? ~ Brother William (talk) 16:56, 5 May 2015 (UTC)
 * I took a look at the LoC website & can't even find the bio at all...  TREKphiler   any time you're ready, Uhura  18:19, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

Suicide
In the bio, the reasons for his suicide are not only vague (what does "financial difficulties" even mean?? and what does "career on the skids" mean?!!) but COMPLETELY IGNORE THE FACT THAT ALMOST CERTAINLY THE PROXIMATE CAUSE WAS CLINICAL DEPRESSION!!!! This article reminds me of the biographies which claim stress led to mental breakdown. (rather than being caused by an underlying mental condition). I encourage the editors to avoid writing about medical conditions they are apparently totally ignorant of and further to avoid quotes or references to the pseudo-scientific beliefs of the mid-20th Century.207.155.85.22 (talk) 05:54, 31 January 2022 (UTC)