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Hayford Peirce

Hayford Peirce in his Tucson office in 2006.
BornJanuary 7, 1942 (1942-01-07) (age 66)
Bangor, Maine, USA
OccupationWriter of science fiction, mysteries and spy thrillers
GenresScience Fiction
Mysteries
Spy Thrillers

Hayford Peirce (born January 7, 1942, Bangor, Maine) is an American writer of science fiction, mysteries, and spy thrillers. Events 1325 - Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal. 1558 - France takes Calais, the last continental Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Bangor is the County seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States, and the major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Employment is a Contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. The Genre of spy fiction —sometimes called political thriller or spy thriller or sometimes shortened simply to Spy-fi —arose before A literary genre is a category of literary composition Genres may be determined by Literary technique, tone, Content, or even (as in the case of fiction The Genre of spy fiction —sometimes called political thriller or spy thriller or sometimes shortened simply to Spy-fi —arose before Events 1325 - Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal. 1558 - France takes Calais, the last continental Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Bangor is the County seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States, and the major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Genre of spy fiction —sometimes called political thriller or spy thriller or sometimes shortened simply to Spy-fi —arose before He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and received his BA from Harvard College. Phillips Exeter Academy (also called Exeter, Phillips Exeter or PEA) is a Co-educational independent Boarding school for grades 9–12 A bachelor's degree is usually an Undergraduate Academic degree awarded for a course or major that generally lasts for three four or in some cases and Harvard College is the undergraduate section and oldest school of Harvard University, a Private university in the United States founded in 1636 by the Massachusetts He has written numerous short stories for the science-fiction magazines Analog, Galaxy, and Omni, as well as mystery shorts for Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American Science fiction Magazine. A galaxy is a massive gravitationally bound system consisting of Stars an Interstellar medium of gas and dust, and Dark matter OMNI was a Science magazine and Science fiction magazine published in the USA. Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine (AHMM is a monthly Digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime and detective fiction Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine is a monthly Digest size fiction magazine specializing in Crime fiction, particularly Detective fiction. Most of his stories are light-hearted and satiric in tone, with elements of black humor and occasional surprising grimness.

He has also written a number of science-fiction and mystery novels, some of which were published by Tor, and the others by Wildside Press. Tor Books is one of two Imprints of Tom Doherty Associates LLC based in New York City Wildside Press is an independent Publishing company located in Maryland, USA. They have been translated into several languages. Typical of them are Napoleon Disentimed and Blood on the Hibiscus. Napoleon Disentimed is a Science-fiction Novel by Hayford Peirce first published by Tor His one spy thriller, written in London in 1968 at the height of the fictional spy mania, is The Bel Air Blitz.

Many of Peirce's short stories concern on-going protagonists. In the science-fiction field there have been collections of his Chap Foey Rider, Capitalist to the Stars stories, of his Jonathan White, Stockbroker in Orbit stories, and of his Sam Fearon, Time Scanner stories. In the mystery field, he has had two collections about protagonists living in Tahiti, Commissaire Tama, a chief of police, and Joe Caneili, a private eye.

Peirce has also collaborated with David M. Alexander on stories that have appeared in Analog. David M Alexander, born in 1945 Upstate New York, is a writer of Science

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction says "he established a name for lightly written tales whose backgrounds were unusually well conceived. . . . Napoleon Disentimed, his first novel, is an attractive example of what might be called the ALTERNATIVE WORLD hijinks tale. . . HP's titles are notably inventive. . . . ". [1]

He is the nephew of the American painter Waldo Peirce. Waldo Peirce ( December 17, 1884 – March 8, 1970) was an American painter, born in Bangor Maine.

Contents

Biography

He was raised in a family of wealthy timber-land owners who were both cultivated and eccentric. His father, a recognized authority on Byzantine art, wrote several books on the subject in French. His mother was a would-be playwright and summer playhouse owner. His uncle, Waldo Peirce, was, for many years, a prominent American painter and bohemian character. Waldo Peirce ( December 17, 1884 – March 8, 1970) was an American painter, born in Bangor Maine. Peirce attended, with no great distinction, Exeter, Stanford, and Harvard. At age 22 he married a Tahitian girl and moved to Tahiti, where he lived for the next 23 years. At various times he was a part owner, and sometimes accountant, for a mother-of-pearl button factory, a garden center, a 1-hour laundry, and an import business.

Peirce began writing in 1974, with the sale of a science-fiction short story to Analog. "Unlimited Warfare" is typical of the fairly short, somewhat sardonic, black-humored stories that he wrote for a number of years. It takes an unlikely premise -- England wages an undeclared war upon France by destroying its vineyards, while France retaliates and ultimately wins the war by destroying the world's tea supply -- and treats it with an apparently deadpan yet whimsical manner. The writing is clear and direct, modeled on that of his favorite author, Evelyn Waugh, with occasional jaunty overtones of P.G. Wodehouse and Raymond Chandler. Arthur Evelyn St John Waugh (ˈiːvlɪn ˈwɔː (28 October 1903 &ndash 10 April 1966 was an English Writer, best known for such darkly humorous and Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE (15 October 1881 – 14 February 1975 (ˈwʊdhaʊs was an English Comic novelist who enjoyed enormous popular success Raymond Thornton Chandler ( July 23, 1888 &ndash March 26, 1959) was an American Author of crime stories and novels

Books

Although highly improbable in their plots, all of his stories do fit into the category of science fiction rather than fantasy, as evidenced by the fact that they were mostly published in the "hard science fiction" magazine Analog. He was greatly encouraged in his writing by Ben Bova, the multiple-Hugo winning editor of Analog. Benjamin William Bova (born November 8, 1932) is an American Science fiction author and editor It was Bova who suggested that he expand a short joke letter sent to Bova into what turned out to be five stories in the popular Chap Foey Rider series. "Chap Foey Rider", the name of an Anglo-Chinese businessman in New York City who gets Earth invited to join the Galactic Postal Union, is actually an anagram of the author's name.

As Peirce's career progressed, his stories became even more imbued with satire and irony, culminating in two stories written in the early 1980's, "Taking the Fifth" and "The Reluctant Torturer. " The lengthy "Taking the Fifth" examines the process and the consequences of first promoting, and then achieving, an Amendment to the American Constitution that would permit the use of testimony in court derived from the application of a foolproof truth serum upon suspected criminals. "The Reluctant Torturer" considers the unintended consequences to the city of San Francisco, and to the luckless protagonist, of hiring a Municipal Torturer to deal with -- initially at any rate -- only those terrorists who threaten to destroy the city. Unintended consequences are outcomes that are not (or not limited to what the actor intended in a particular situation A number of these stories were reprinted in anthologies such as Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year, Fifth Annual Collection, and The Best of Omni Science Fiction.

In 1987 Tor published his first novel, Napoleon Disentimed, a parallel-universe and time-travel story of some complexity. Napoleon Disentimed is a Science-fiction Novel by Hayford Peirce first published by Tor It is written with Peirce's characteristic wit, irony, and jauntiness and is almost Wodehousian in its zaniness and complications of plot. Two more novels followed swiftly. The Thirteenth Majestral, later reissued as Dinosaur Park, was another intensely complex time-travel novel, but this time written -- in both style and theme -- in the somewhat rococo manner of the great science-fiction stylist Jack Vance. Dinosaur Park is a Science-fiction Novel by Hayford Peirce first published by Tor in 1989 under the title The Thirteenth Dinosaur Park is a tourist attraction in Rapid City South Dakota, United States. John Holbrook Vance (born August 28, 1916 in San Francisco, Phylum Monsters, written in the first person, was far more straightforward than the first two books but perhaps even zanier in its plotting as well as having an unexpectedly poignant ending. Phylum Monsters is a science-fiction novel by Hayford Peirce.

All of these books were translated into various languages and enjoyed a certain amount of success in Europe and Russia but none of them were commercial successes in the American market and Peirce returned to writing short stories, expanding into the mystery field as well. Drawing on his years in Tahiti, he wrote two series of mystery short stories, primarily for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. One series features an American private eye (and ex-Foreign Legionnaire) in Tahiti, Joe Caneili, and his rather picaresque adventures. The other stars Commissaire Tama, Tahiti's fattest man and the Chief of Police of Papeete, its capital city. Both are written in the fast-moving but evocative style Peirce uses in his science fiction and involve unlikely plots that are unique to Tahiti, such as a banker falling dead upon the delivery of his own coffin to his front door, or the complete disappearance of a fastidiously constructed house from its foundations in the wake of a hurricane. Rich evocations of the modernized Tahitian culture and the lush Polynesian landscape are important elements in these stories.

Bibliography

Science fiction

Mysteries and spy thrillers

Internet article

Trivia

External links

Notes

  1. ^ The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, edited by John Clute & Peter Nicholls

Sources

John Frederick Clute (1940-) is a Canadian born author and critic who has lived in Britain since 1969 Peter Nicholls may refer to Peter Nicholls (writer - critic and co-editor of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Peter Nicholls John Frederick Clute (1940-) is a Canadian born author and critic who has lived in Britain since 1969 Peter Nicholls may refer to Peter Nicholls (writer - critic and co-editor of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Peter Nicholls St Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in the iconic Flatiron Building in New York City.
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