<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

H. Beam Piper (1904–1964) started out writing relatively minor SF adventures in the late 1940s, attracting only moderate interest during his lifetime. However, since his death, his work has continued to generate a following, and additions have been made to both of his best-known series. The most noteworthy of his early stories is "He Walked Around the Horses" (1948), which would become part of his Paratime series, a time travel adventure similar to Poul Anderson's Time Patrol or Fritz Leiber's Changewar stories. His first full-length novel, Uller Uprising, was published as part of a multi-author omnibus collection in 1952, and did not appear in book form by itself until 1983. It's a fairly routine story of the conflict between military overseers and a rebellious colony world.

His first two SF titles to appear in book form were both collaborations with John J. McGuire. A Planet for Texans (1953, aka Lone Star Planet) and Crisis in 2140 A.D. (1953, aka Null ABC) were clever but uninspired adventures involving a colony modeled after stereotypical Texans and a future dystopian Earth. Four Day Planet (1961), by Piper alone, was in much the same vein.

Piper began to attract attention in the early 1960s with his Hugo-nominated Little Fuzzy (1962), a thoughtful and emotionally powerful story about attempts to determine whether the cute inhabitants of a proposed colony world are actually sentient beings. Piper added two sequels, Fuzzy Sapiens (1964, aka The Other Human Race) and Fuzzies and Other People (1984), the latter being published posthumously. William Tuning and Ardath Mayhar have both written additional novels about the Fuzzies.

Piper's other popular cycle of stories was collected as Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen (1965, aka Gunpowder God), which deals with another time agent and his adventures in alternate histories. Roland Green and John F. Carr have extended this series, as well.

Piper's other novels, including Junkyard Planet (1963, aka The Cosmic Computer) and Space Viking (1963) are routine space operas. A good selection of his general short fiction can be found in Federation (1981) and Empire (1981). Piper also wrote a detective novel, Murder in the Gun Room (1953) but it is almost unreadable. Piper committed suicide in 1964, apparently as the result of financial difficulties.