How Precious Was that While

One of fantasy's most popular authors, Piers Anthony, is also one of the field's most fascinating and controversial characters. Anthony's first volume of memoirs, Bio of an Ogre (1988), chronicling his first fifty years, raised eyebrows for its frank, outspoken comments on fellow writers, editors, and fans. Now Piers Anthony continues his own remarkable life story with How Precious Was That While, a volume sure to intrigue and entertain his many fans—and infuriate his critics. The book begins with a review of the author's early years, revealing new and telling details about his upbringing at the hands of two brilliant but often careless parents, including a riveting section about their harrowing experiences as expatriates in Spain just before the Second World War. Anthony chronicles his lonely and isolated childhood in New England, where his parents moved after the war. He acknowledges social awkwardness, learning problems, and recurring depression that clouded those years, before his gift for storytelling at last became his salvation. He tells of his early loves, his courtship and marriage to his wife, the birth of their daughters, and his struggle to fit into the conformist society of postwar America. And he narrates in vivid detail his slow, steady progress toward personal and commercial success as a writer, from his early achievements as an innovator in science fiction to the creation of the magical land of Xanth, which has become his most celebrated accomplishment, placing him on the New York Times bestseller lists more than twenty times. Much of the book focuses on the past fifteen years since Bio of an Ogre was published, a time both of personal progress and professional frustration for Anthony, as his works became increasingly ambitious while his sales began to slow. He offers cautionary tales on the pitfalls of the "bottom line" publishing mentality, as well as scathing portraits of several well-known publishing figures whose decisions he feels hampered his career. But Anthony's solace in the face of these setbacks has always been the devoted readers who send him thousands of letters every year—many of which he personally answers. The soul of the book is a selection of heartrending letters and poems from Anthony's most ardent young fans, many of them as deeply troubled as he once was, who have found in his writings a kindred spirit who understands both their anguish and their dreams. Candid, opinionated, and endlessly fascinating, How Precious Was That While is an intimate self-portrait of one of the most intriguing writers of our time.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Science Fiction, Nonfiction, Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.