"H. Beam Piper - Federation" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piper H Beam)

only say, "Beam looked me right in the eye when he said it. And if there
was a twinkle in his eye, I couldn't find it." Jerry's still not sure whether he
believes it, but he's almost certain Beam did. This would certainly go a
long way toward explaining Piper's fascination with time travel, his
Paratime stories, and his interest in the time theories of John Dunne,
which dealt with parallel worlds coexisting in time and space. Although on
the other hand it raises some questions that are far beyond the scope of
this short study.

In a self-revealing quote from Murder in the Gun Room (Piper's only
published mystery novel) a character describes his own writing:
 Science fiction. I do a lot of stories for the pulpsтАж Space-Trails, and
Other Worlds, and Wonder Stories; mags like that. Most of it's
standardized formula stuff; what's known in the trade as space-operas. My
best stuff goes to Astonishing. Parenthetically, you mustn't judge any of
these magazines by their names. It seems to be a convention to use
hyperbolic names for science-fiction magazines; a heritage from what
might be called an earlier and ruder day. What I do for Astonishing is
really hard work, and I enjoy it. I'm working now on one of them, based on
J. W. Dunne's time-theories, if you know what they are.

What was H. Beam Piper like? He was a lean man of medium height,
with dark hair and a thin moustache. He was almost never seen without
his pipe. A thin patrician nose bridged two flint-hard eyes which would
occasionally twinkle as though listening to the punch line of some inner
joke on the human condition. Jerry Pournelle describes him as a courtly
gentleman of the old school; and even Jerry admits that Piper did not
suffer fools gladly. He was soft-spoken and spent most of his time at sf
conventions by himself, not even fraternizing much with the other writers.

I recently received a letter from Paul Dellinger, an old time fan, who
had the following remembrance of H. Beam Piper. "My most vivid
recollection of him (Piper) was his recalling attendance at a movie which
sounded, from his description, like THEM. Anyway, he said about the time
the giant insects appeared he stalked out in disgust. Another man who
exited at the same time struck up a conversation with him, including the
question of whether Piper had ever read any science-fiction. "Hell," Piper
said, "I WRITE the stuff!" This is a remembrance from Mr. Dellinger's
first sf con in Washington D.C. in 1963, not long after the publication of
Little Fuzzy.

That Piper was a hard working and conscientious man, there can be
little doubt. From 1946 to 1956 he was a part-time writer and was
published in Astounding, Future Science Fiction, Space Stories, and
Amazing Science Fiction. All during this time he supported his elderly
mother and continued to work for the Pennsy Railroad; it wasn't until
1956тАФafter the death of his motherтАФthat he was able to retire. Several
years later he married a French woman whom he viewed with some
ambivalence. He once confided to Jerry Pournelle that "she only married
me to get an expensive Paris vacation." A letter to Charlie Brown, dated