Piper, H. Beam: - Born on March 23, 1904, in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Henry Beam Piper educated himself after being expelled from high school. He began working for the Pennsylvania Railroad as an engineer and night watchman at age eighteen, but retained a strong interest in history and science that would inspire him to become a writer and carry forward as themes in many of his works. His first published work was the mystery novel Murder in the Gunroom; he wrote several other science fiction novels and short stories before publishing his most famous work, Little Fuzzy, in 1962. Piper wrote two sequels to Little Fuzzy: Fuzzy Sapiens (1964), and Fuzzies and Other People (written in 1964, published until 1984).