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Author Piers Anthony is a famous novelist and short story writer from Oxford, England. He was born on 6th August 1934, named Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob and has established himself as an English American writer under the pen name Piers Anthony over the years. His writings mainly include the fantasy and science fiction genres. Piers is most famous for writing the novel series Xanth which is set in the fictional realm. A number of his novels have featured in the New York Times Bestseller list and he considers himself lucky to have achieved a unique achievement of writing books with titles on every letter of the English alphabet, right from Anthology to the highly successful novel, Zombie Lover. When Piers was just six years old, his family shifted to the United States of America, where he graduated from the Goddard College located in Vermont in the year 1956. He served in the U.S Army for a short period from the year 1958 and thereby acquired the citizenship of the United States.
After serving for two years in the Army, Piers taught at a school in St. Petersburg, Florida for some time. He finally left everything to become a full-time writer and began writing novels and short stories. Piers married Carol Marble when they both were studying in college together. They faced a tough time in generating a steady income while Carol was pregnant and it was later that Piers identified his real talent and began exploring the writer in himself. Initially, they had decided that if he could sell a writing within a year, he would give up writing. But, by God’s grace, Piers succeeded in getting one of his short stories published at the end of the year and Carol also started supporting him. Today, after so many years of a successful writing career, Piers looks back to the days of his struggle and credits his wife for becoming his moral support in all the ups and downs in his life. Piers Anthony lives with his wife, one of the two daughters and a grandchild on a tree farm in Florida. One of his daughter died of respiratory paralysis in the year 2009.
During the initial days of his stint as a writer, Piers had to change multiple publishers as he did not like their habit of tampering his writings. He believed that his works were very close to his heart and no one had the right to make changes in them. He even sued the publishers on a few occasions due to this and has won most of the judgement in his favor. In his entire career as a successful novelist, Piers has written more than 15 fiction novel series’. His writings also include short story collections and nonfiction works. Although, all of his initial writings brought him success and fame, it was the Xanth series that was the turning point of his career. The Xanth series consists of 39 fiction novels with the first novel of the series being published in the year 1977. Piers is still contributing to the series and the 40th novel is about to be published soon. The first book of the series was titled ‘A Spell for chameleon’ which introduces the fictional world of Xanth where magic was prevalent in every nook and corner. The land of Xanth is very enchanting and every citizen living here has some special spells. The novel also introduces the central character of the series named ‘Bink’.
Bink lives in the North Village of Xanth and is an exceptional man as he different from the people of Xanth. He does not possess any magical powers like them and lives in the fear that he would be exiled from Xanth if he did not find any magic. Another character named ‘Good Magician Humfrey’ believed that Bink was a very powerful man. By reading the charts, Humfrey came to know that Bink had powers similar to the King and even the evil magician ‘Trent’, but no one is able to see the form of his powers. Meanwhile, Bink is in despair to find his magic and prove his worth of being a part of Xanth otherwise he will be expelled. He even gets separated from his fiancee Sabrina. The novel also introduces other important characters of the series while showing the miseries in the life of Bink and his attempts to get out of every situation. The theme of the novel is very well set in a fictional world and the characters too are described very beautifully. Bink wishes to have a variety in life and meets ‘Chameleon’ and sees the different forms of all the attractive women whom he has encountered in it and decides to get settled with it. The novel was a huge hit among the masses and was set to be made into a movie in the year 2008. Chris Palmer was very much interested in directing the movie, but Warner Brothers production house was of the opinion that the economic climate did not fit well to finance the film and it is still in development.
The second novel of the Xanth series was published in the year 1979 under the title of ‘The Source of Magic’. The plot of this novel is set a year ahead from the first book and shows the adventures in the life of Bink. He is settled with his pregnant wife Chameleon who later gives birth to a son named Dor. He is appointed as the Official Researcher of Xanth by Trent and is given the responsibility of discovering the source of the magic of Xanth. Bink comes out all the hazards in his life successfully during the course of the novel, but accidently destroys all the magic of Xanth. At the end of the novel, Bink returns home and discovers that his son Dor is gifted with the talent of a magician. His son is able to talk to inanimate objects. The second book of the series also continues to charm the readers with its fresh adventurous magic. The work of Piers was praised by one and all and the book went on to sell a huge number of copies worldwide. Other noted writers also happily praised the writings of Piers Anthony and this helped him to establish himself as a noteworthy author. The Xanth series is the inspiration behind the video game ‘Companions of Xanth’ developed by the Legend Entertainment and also a board game titled ‘Xanth’ which was developed by Mayfair Games. Most of the novels of the series are in talks to be made into movies by many famous directors and producers of Hollywood. Piers has maintained an internet service for the aspiring writers and as a result, his website has been awarded with a special recognition towards the Service to Writers by Preditors and Editors. He also received The Wizard Sites Award in the year 1999. The initial novel of the Xanth series went on to win the British Fantasy Award for being the best novel in the fiction genre in 1978.
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4 Responses to “Piers Anthony”
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My dad introduced me to the Xanth series when I was 13. I absolutely love them so much! Piers Anthony is one of my very favorite authors! What an amazing man!
I am absolutely addicted to the Xanth series. How ironic that it was supposed to be a trilogy, and we’re now on Book 44!! Hope it keeps going and going and going!!!
I had a friend who was a fan back in high school. I finally got the opportunity to check out Anthony’s works and read On a Pale Horse. I am now addicted!
Thank you for adding this great author. I have been a huge fan of the Xanth series since I was in Middle School