Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob, born on August 6, 1934 in Oxford, England, was sent to the United States during World War II, when he was six years old for safe haven. Anthony's experience of education in America was not happy. Adolescence found him deeply depressed about school, his own physical frailty, the death of a favorite cousin, and his own family's frequent moves. To ease his inner turmoil Anthony began to write.

Success in writing led to success and happiness at Goddard College in Vermont, where Anthony graduated in 1956, the same year he married Carol Marble. His creative writing thesis at Goddard eventually led to the publication of the novel, Sos the Rope, but over a decade elapsed before it appeared in print. After graduation, Anthony tried to support himself and his wife in various ways, but neither the army, teaching, technical writing, nor free-lance writing...