Today, March 23, is the birthday of H. Beam Piper (1904-1964).  Piper was one of the first writers to try to write a future history.

And he drew on real hsitory to do it.

Heinlein’s, Asimov’s, Niven’s, and Anderson’s future histories are better known these days. But I would argue that Piper’s work can h old its own when compared to theirs.

Piper has the unfortunate distinction of being one of the few prominent writers of science fiction and fantasy to commit suicide. Others include Robert E. Howard and James Tiptree, Jr. (Alice Sheldon).

But let’s not dwell on that. I want to focus briefly on how Piper used history as an inspriation.

Piper wrote at both short and novel lengths. One of his most famous stories, set early in his future history, is “Omniligual”, in which a group of scientists exploring ruins on Mars use the periodic table to help them translate the language. Of course, that idea has become something of a cliche these days.

It was the cover story in the February 1957 issue of Astounding. One of the things that made the story standout was that it featured a female protagonist at a time when women still weren’t protrayed very often as scientists. (Asimov”s Susan Calvin being a promiinent exception.)

That’s not really using history, though, so much as common sense. It’s in the novel Space Viking (first serialized in Analog from Novoember 1962 through February 1963) and the shorter works included in Federation and Empire where Piper truly draws on history.

I want to say I read Space Viking in high school or college (either one  the summers before my junior year in high to before my junior year in college). Whichever year it was, I read a lot of Piper that summer. I was working for a crop dusting company as a flagger and carried a bood in my backpack for when I was waiting for the crop duster to come back.

The thing that struck me about that book were the blatant historical references. The ones I remember most are the parallels to the rise of Nazism on one of the planets.

It was reading Piper more than any other wreiter, even Poul Anderson who notoriously cribbed from history (I mean that in a good way), who ignited my interest in history. Certainly more than any teacher in school ever did.

I still think the cover of the Ace edition from the early eighties is the best cover for the book.

It’s been a while since I read Piper. I’ll try to correct that at some point this year.