Piers Anthony (born Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob in Oxford, England, in 1934) is an American novelist. Anthony's family came to the United States when he was four years old; he graduated from Goddard College in Vermont, served in the United States Army (1957-1959), and became a citizen in his twenties. While in the army he was editor and cartoonist for the battalion newspaper, and in the early 1960s he turned to writing full-time. He is one of the most prolific science fiction and fantasy authors with numerous best-sellers to his credit along with almost a dozen Hugo and Nebula Award nominations. In addition to dozens of science fiction and fantasy novels, he has written historical fiction, martial arts, and horror.
He is best know for his seven-volume Incarnations of Immortality and for the long-running Xanth series which has more than thirty titles, most of which are puns (e.g. Faun and Games, Swell Foop, Roc and a Hard Place, Stork Naked ). He has been nominated for numerous Hugo and Nebula Awards.
From the guide to the Piers Anthony Papers, 1951-1978, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)
