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Henry Beam Piper (1904–1964) was an American science fiction author. He wrote many short stories and several novels.

H. Beam Piper was born in 1904. He had no formal education and, at 18, went to work as a labourer for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Largely self-educated, he garnered an extensive knowledge of science and history. In his later years, Piper, a solitary and guarded man, did not tell his friends of his precarious financial state. In 1964, H. Beam Piper shut off all the utilities to his apartment in Williamsport, Pennsylvania and took his own life.