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

July 2, 1963:
 I am now in the process of being divorced, if my future-ex-wife can ever
get her French lawyers to get all the red-tape untangled. I suspect that she
just doesn't know who to bribe. We are writing to each other again, in a
very cordial and friendly manner. She reports that our red dachshund,
Verkan Vail, of whom she retained custody when we split up, was in a
movie, along with Bridgitte Bardot and Jean Gabin, a couple of years ago.

Piper was also very fond of guns and had quite a respectable gun
collection, one that would be valued in six or seven figures today.

John H. Costello described it for the fanzine Renaissance:

His collection of more than 100 antique and modem weapons, ranging
from a 450-year old French sword and a 400-year old Spanish poiniard
with a gold inlaid blade, to a small brass cannon once mounted on a
pioneer's blockhouse during the Indian fighting and a nine-millimeter
pistol of the type used by German SS troops in World War II formed the
background of his non-science fiction mystery. Murder in the Gunroom,
published by Knopf in 1953.

While it's hard to judge the emotional effects of Piper's failed marriage,
it is certain that the French honeymoon and subsequent divorce left him
financially destitute. It was during this period that he wrote the Fuzzy
novels, Cosmic Computer, Space Viking, and the "Lord Kalvan of
Otherwhen" stories. It is a sad irony that while at the height of his writing
prowess, he saw himself as a failure. When Ken White, his long-time
agent, died, Piper was reduced to shooting pigeons from his hotel window
to supplement his meager diet. White, who had kept all his clients' records
inside his head, left Piper's business concerns in such a state of disarray
that Piper was unaware of several sales to John W. Campbell. And when
the third Fuzzy novel, Fuzzies and Other People, was rejected by Avon as
being too dependent upon the other books in the series, he felt his career
had come to an end. (The third Fuzzy novel has since become lost and is
the property of the Piper estate now owned by Ace Books. Anyone aiding
in its recovery will be amply rewarded.)

A solitary man to the end, Piper did not tell his friends of his financial
predicament. Instead he took a way out that could only be reasonable to a
man who abhorred state handouts and was determined not to burden his
friends and family. On Monday, November 9th, 1964, H. Beam Piper shut
off all the utilities to his apartment in Williams-port, Pennsylvania, put
painter's drop-cloths over the walls and floor, and took his own life with a
handgun from his collection.

In his suicide note, he gave an explanation that is pure Piper: "I don't
like to leave messes when I go away, but if I could have cleaned up any of
this mess, I wouldn't be going away. H. Beam Piper."

After ten years of neglectтАФfrom 1965 to 1976тАФdue in large part to the