Hayford Peirce

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Hayford Peirce
Hayford Peirce in his Tucson office in 2006
Born	(1942-01-07)January 7, 1942 Bangor, Maine, U.S.
Died	November 19, 2020(2020-11-19) (aged 78) Tucson, Arizona, U.S.
Occupation	Writer
Genre	Science fiction Mysteries Spy thrillers

Hayford Peirce (January 7, 1942 – November 19, 2020) was an American writer of science fiction, mysteries, and spy thrillers. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and received his BA from Harvard College.^{[citation needed]} He wrote 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.^{[citation needed]}

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction says that "he established a name for lightly written tales whose backgrounds were unusually well conceived."^[1]

Biography[]

Peirce was raised in a family of wealthy timber-land owners who were both cultivated and eccentric.^{[citation needed]} His father, also named Hayford, a recognized authority on Byzantine art, wrote several books on the subject in French.^[2] His mother, Polly, was a would-be playwright and summer playhouse owner.^{[citation needed]} His uncle, Waldo Peirce, was a painter and bohemian character. Peirce attended, with no great distinction, Exeter, Stanford, and Harvard.^{[citation needed]} At age 22 he married a Tahitian girl and moved to Tahiti, where he lived for the next 23 years.^{[citation needed]} At various times he was a part owner, and sometimes accountant, for a mother-of-pearl button factory, a garden center, a one-hour laundry, and an import business.^{[citation needed]}

Peirce began writing in 1974, with the sale of "Unlimited Warfare" a science-fiction short story to Analog magazine.^[1] The story is typical of the fairly short, somewhat sardonic, black-humored stories that he wrote for a number of years.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[original research?]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

In 2017, The Motley Fool published a financial article describing how Peirce became a "dividend millionaire" by investing in high-dividend stocks over a 22-year period.^[3]

Death[]

On November 19, 2020, Peirce was found in critical condition at his home in Tucson, Arizona, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound; his wife, Wanda Zhang Peirce, was found dead at the scene in "a possible murder suicide", according to police.^[4] Peirce was hospitalized, and subsequently died.^[5] His wife is the former owner of Wanda Z's Chinese, a restaurant in Oro Valley.^[6]

Writing career[]

He wrote 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, was 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 also collaborated with David M. Alexander on stories that have appeared in Analog.

Bibliography[]

Science fiction[]

All works are novels unless otherwise noted.

• Napoleon Disentimed, Tor Books (1987) ISBN 0-8125-4898-1
• 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), Heyne)
• Sam Fearon: Time Scanner (2001) (short story collection)
• Flickerman, Wildside Press (2001)
• The Spark of Life, Wildside Press (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 Hamilton's fictional character, the counter-agent and assassin Matt Helm, was actually born.

References[]

External links[]

• Hayford Peirce at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Hayford Peirce SF Encyclopedia entry