Hello!
Um David, that blurb confirms one discussion I had regarding the Jeff
Rand mysteries with Mr. Carr, in fact I posted to the original Yahooie
list a question regarding those two, if they were still available. He
confirmed privately that one was held in private hands, and others
were destroyed. Those two must have been them, as for the other? It
would be interesting to see it in print, and perhaps someone rescued
those two....
-----
Gregg C Levine xxxxxx@gmail.com
"This signature fought the Time Wars, time and again."

On Sun, Jan 23, 2022 at 1:19 PM David Johnson <xxxxxx@zarthani.net> wrote:
>
> Here's another item from the PIPER-L archives, a post from fifteen years ago this month: John Carr commenting on Beam's First Cycle and its origins.
>
> ---
> Subject: "First Cycle" and the Piper Trunk
> From: John F. Carr
> Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2007
>
> RE-CYCLED
>
> I was the first person to read "First Cycle," after it was received from the Piper Estate -- mostly odds and ends from Charles Piper, one of Beam's cousins, as I understood at the time.  Jim Baen didn't have time to read the stories and sent them to Jerry Pournelle to  evaluate.  Jerry was busy with a new novel ("Oath of Fealty," I believe)  and I was given the pleasure of being the "Piper Estate's" first reader.   (That was when I "discovered" When in the Course...)
>
> Most of the Piper body of work (dozens of unpublished  stories and even a few novels, such as "Murder in Conference Room" and "Murder Frozen Over") were lost when the "Estate's" original lawyer tossed them out; that is, those manuscripts that Beam himself didn't burn in his fireplace.  It's hard to blame the lawyer since he had 'held them' for over many years and probably was not aware of their literary value.  After all, Beam did kill himself because he couldn't sell enough stories to pay for food and lodging...and -- believe  this -- his requirements were minimal.
>
> Mike Knerr, the friend who "cleaned out" Beam's apartment and gave the Piper manuscripts to the lawyer, told me over the course of several telephone conversations that the only surviving manuscript he kept (unknowingly in one of two trunks with some of Piper's effects) was the mis-labeled box ("yellow pages") which contained an early draft of the Third Fuzzy Novel.
>
> Mike Knerr died in 1986 and I've spent almost a decade locating his  heirs.  I've recently been in close contact with Mike's son, who has given  me blanket permission to use as much as I want from his father's unpublished ms.  "PIPER" for my Piper biography, "The Last Cavalier: H. Beam Piper."  He remembered the Piper "Trunks" as a boy, but was unaware of their value.  He is now attempting to get the Piper "Trunk" back from his stepmother.  As he remembers the "Trunks," (actually two: the blue one, according to his stepmother, has been 'lost') they were full of signed books and Piper's manuscripts and effects, including Piper's paperweight and itsy-bitsy brass cannon.
>
> It is unclear whether or not the "Trunk" contains manuscript copies of published stories, or unpublished works?  Mike was always very vague and touchy regarding this subject.  He told his son nothing about his time with Beam Piper.  His son does remember him being very protective about the "Trunks" and that Mike took them with him during several cross-country moves.  Sadly, we may never know what the "Trunk" holds.  The son is very upset that his stepmother has the "Trunk," and will not release it.
>
> Back to "First Cycle," the book was clearly a finished draft (it was supposed to follow "Uller Uprising" as part of the Twayne Triplet  series); it did appear to have a very minor connection to the Terro-Human  Future History.  I recommended to both Jim and Susan Allison, after Jim left Ace Books to work at Tor, that "First Cycle" would  be best left unpublished, as an early and derivative work.  (It's an overly obvious 'satire' of the Cold War.)  From my reading, Kurland  didn't make many changes, nor did he "improve" the book.  Some things are  best left in the trunk, and I believe this was one of them.  Sadly, Ace decided -- over my objections -- to publish "First Cycle," while burying "Null ABC" (much of which was based on John J. McGuire observations as a teacher at Keith Jr. High in Altoona) as Politically Incorrect!
>
> John F. Carr
> --
>
> John's original message is available here:
>
> https://web.archive.org/web/20080310101923/http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0701&L=piper-l&T=0&F=&S=&P=9710
>
> Cheers,
>
> David
> --
> "Ideas for science fiction stories like ideas for anything else, are where you find them, usually in the most unlikely places.  The only reliable source is a mind which asks itself a question like, 'What would happen if--?' or, 'Now what would this develop into, in a few centuries?'  Or, 'How would so-and-so happen?'  Anything at all, can trigger such a question, in your field if not in mine." - H. Beam Piper, "Double: Bill Symposium" interview
>
>
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