Hayford Peirce
Encyclopedia
Hayford Peirce is an American
writer of science fiction
, mysteries
, and spy thrillers. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy
and received his BA
from Harvard College
. 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
. 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
. They have been translated into several languages. Typical of them are Napoleon Disentimed
and Blood on the Hibiscus. 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.
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....".
, was a prominent American painter and bohemian character. 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
.
, the multiple-Hugo
winning editor of Analog. 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 1980s, "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 consequence
s 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. 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. 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
. 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 (1989) employs genetic engineering in a wryly irreverent fashion."
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.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer of science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, mysteries
Mystery fiction
Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term.1.It is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime mystery. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction...
, and spy thrillers. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...
and received his BA
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
from Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
. He has written numerous short stories for the science-fiction magazines Analog, Galaxy
Galaxy
A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias , literally "milky", a...
, and Omni, as well as mystery shorts for Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine is a monthly digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime and detective fiction. AHMM is named for Alfred Hitchcock, the famed director of suspense films and television.-History:...
and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine is an American 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
Tor Books
Tor Books is one of two imprints of Tom Doherty Associates LLC, based in New York City. It is noted for its science fiction and fantasy titles. Tom Doherty Associates also publishes mainstream fiction, mystery, and occasional military history titles under its Forge imprint. The company was founded...
, and the others by Wildside Press
Wildside Press
Wildside Press is an independent publishing company located in Maryland, USA. It was founded in 1989 by John Gregory and Kim Betancourt. While the press was originally conceived as a publisher of speculative fiction in both trade and limited editions, it has broadened out somewhat since then, both...
. They have been translated into several languages. Typical of them are Napoleon Disentimed
Napoleon Disentimed
Napoleon Disentimed is a science fiction novel by Hayford Peirce first published by Tor Books in 1987. It is a humorous treatment of two standard science-fiction themes, those of time travel and of parallel universes...
and Blood on the Hibiscus. 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
David M. Alexander
[]David M. Alexander, born in 1945 in upstate New York, is a writer of science fiction and mysteries who now lives in Palo Alto, California. Novels published under his own name are The Chocolate Spy, Fane, and My Real Name Is Lisa...
on stories that have appeared in Analog.
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....".
Biography
Peirce 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 PeirceWaldo Peirce
Waldo Peirce was an American painter, born in Bangor, Maine.Peirce was both a prominent painter and a well-known character. He was sometimes called "the American Renoir"...
, was a prominent American painter and bohemian character. 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
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
, with occasional jaunty overtones of P.G. Wodehouse and Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American novelist and screenwriter.In 1932, at age forty-five, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in...
.
Books
Although highly improbable in their plots, all of Peirce's 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 BovaBen Bova
Benjamin William Bova is an American science-fiction author and editor. He is the recipient of six Hugo Awards for Best Professional Editor for his work at Analog Science Fiction in the 1970's.-Personal life:...
, the multiple-Hugo
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
winning editor of Analog. 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 1980s, "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 consequence
Unintended consequence
In the social sciences, unintended consequences are outcomes that are not the outcomes intended by a purposeful action. The concept has long existed but was named and popularised in the 20th century by American sociologist Robert K. Merton...
s 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. 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
Napoleon Disentimed
Napoleon Disentimed is a science fiction novel by Hayford Peirce first published by Tor Books in 1987. It is a humorous treatment of two standard science-fiction themes, those of time travel and of parallel universes...
, a parallel-universe and time-travel story of some complexity. 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
Dinosaur Park
Dinosaur Park is a science-fiction novel by Hayford Peirce first published by Tor in 1989 under the title The Thirteenth Majestral and republished as Dinosaur Park in 1994. The nondescript cover of the original book had no relation to the story...
, 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
Jack Vance
John Holbrook Vance is an American mystery, fantasy and science fiction author. Most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance. Vance has published 11 mysteries as John Holbrook Vance and 3 as Ellery Queen...
. 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 (1989) employs genetic engineering in a wryly irreverent fashion."
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.
Science fiction
- all works are novels unless otherwise noted
- Napoleon DisentimedNapoleon DisentimedNapoleon Disentimed is a science fiction novel by Hayford Peirce first published by Tor Books in 1987. It is a humorous treatment of two standard science-fiction themes, those of time travel and of parallel universes...
, Tor Books (1987) ISBN 0-812-54898-1 - The Thirteenth Majestral (1989), reissued as Dinosaur Park (1994) ISBN 0-8125-4892-2 (both editions)
- Phylum Monsters, Tor Books (1989) ISBN 0-8125-4894-9
- Chap Foey Rider, Capitalist to the Stars (2000) (short story collection)
- Jonathan White, Stockbroker in Orbit (2001) (short story collection)
- The Burr in the Garden of Eden, Wildside Press (2001) ISBN 1-58715-277-0 (first published in Germany as Ein Paradies mit Tücken, (1998), HeyneRandom HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
) - Sam Fearon: Time Scanner (2001) (short story collection)
- Flickerman, Wildside Press (2001)
- The Spark of Life, Wildside PressWildside PressWildside Press is an independent publishing company located in Maryland, USA. It was founded in 1989 by John Gregory and Kim Betancourt. While the press was originally conceived as a publisher of speculative fiction in both trade and limited editions, it has broadened out somewhat since then, both...
(2001) - Black Hole Planet, Betancourt & Company (2003) ISBN 1-59224-935-3
- Aliens, Betancourt & Company (2003) (short story collection)
- With a Bang, and Other Forbidden Delights (2005) (short story collection)
- The 13th Death of Yuri Gellaski, Wildside Press (2005) ISBN 0-8095-8944-3
- In the Flames of the Flickerman , Wildside Press (2011) ISBN 978-1-4344-3037-3
Mysteries and spy thrillers
- Trouble in Tahiti: Blood on the Hibiscus (2000)
- Trouble in Tahiti: P.I. Joe Caneili, Discrétion Assurée (2000)
- Trouble in Tahiti: Commissaire Tama, Chief of Police (2000)
- Trouble in Tahiti: The Gauguin Murders (2001)
- The Bel Air Blitz (2002)
Articles
- Some Thoughts on Matt Helm's Birthday, an analysis of when Donald HamiltonDonald HamiltonDonald Bengtsson Hamilton was a U.S. writer of novels, short stories, and non-fiction about the outdoors. His novels consist mostly of paperback originals, principally spy fiction but also crime fiction and Westerns such as The Big Country...
's fictional character, the counter-agent and assassin Matt HelmMatt HelmMatt Helm is a fictional character created by author Donald Hamilton. He is a U.S. government counter-agent—a man whose primary job is to kill or nullify enemy agents—not a spy or secret agent in the ordinary sense of the term as used in spy thrillers.-The character and the series:The...
, was actually born.
Sources
- The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, edited by John CluteJohn CluteJohn Frederick Clute is a Canadian born author and critic who has lived in Britain since 1969. He has been described as "an integral part of science fiction's history."...
& Peter NichollsPeter Nicholls (writer)Peter Nicholls is an Australian literary scholar and critic. He is the creator and a co-editor of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction ....
, St. Martin's PressSt. Martin's PressSt. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in the Flatiron Building in New York City. Currently, St. Martin's Press is one of the United States' largest publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under eight imprints, which include St. Martin's Press , St...
, New York, 1993 ISBN 0-312-09618-6