Peter S. Beagle, the author of three novels that were foundational for me (The Last Unicorn, A Fine and Private Place and The Folk of the Air), and many other novels and stories, is having financial trouble – trouble severe enough so that, according to his friend Adrienne Leigh, it’s currently difficult for him to buy groceries. (See update below!)
Here are three two ways you can help.
SHORT-TERM: Give a birthday gift directly to Peter Beagle via his paypal. If you’re known to me, contact me directly for Beagle’s email address (you can email me, or just leave a message in the comments asking me to email you; if you do that, make sure you comment using your real email address!); or you can go to Adrienne Leigh on Twitter and DM her for the email address.
These birthday gifts can be used by Peter Beagle for his household’s immediate day to day needs. (And yes, his birthday is this week!) Please say “happy birthday!” in the Paypal message area.
LONG-TERM:
Go to the Support Peter Beagle website and use the button there to contribute to a fund to help pay for Peter Beagle’s legal costs. You can leave a message for Peter in the paypal field; I am told he will receive and read all messages sent this way.
BUY THE HUMBLE BUNDLE!
Peter Beagle has curated a Humble Bumble of unicorn fiction, called “Save the Unicorns.” You can pay as little as $1 to get a ton of novels to read, and support Peter Beagle at the same time! Important: In “choose where your money goes,” pick 100% Tachyon Press. Peter Beagle will get royalties and such from Tachyon for these Humble Bumble sales.
To be kept up-to-date on Peter Beagle news, follow @RealPeterBeagle on Twitter.
UPDATE
Update #1: There was a glitch on the 23rd with donating to the legal fund, but it’s been fixed – so if people got a “not accepting funds” method yesterday, they should absolutely try again!
Update #2, quoting from Peter Beagle’s friend Adrienne:
It has been SUPER helpful! We apparently got a TON of money in to him as birthday gifts already – to the point where getting more into there rather than the legal fund would be counterproductive.
He’s got plenty now to meet immediate needs for him and his partner and also to get himself something nice as a birthday present. :) But [his ongoing legal situation] does have, obviously, ongoing expenses, and getting money into that legal fund means less of the income Peter has gets diverted into that.
He called me yesterday and he was absolutely *overcome* by the outpouring of support and birthday wishes, and he’s incredibly grateful not just to people who’ve donated but the people who have him in their thoughts.
He’s a very humble man, he really is, and on some level he *never* expects the kind of love and respect people have for him.
Would like to contribute
Probably not known to you, but Peter S. Beagle is someone whose work I have read and re-read. I would love to help.
I have loved Peter S. Beagle’s work for decades–and literally just found out he and I share a birthday. So, yes–let me know where to send the Paypal donation. It can’t be much. I’m back-against-the-wall myself. But it will help with groceries a bit.
I would like to help.
I would like to contribute.
Would like to help
Can you DM me on facebook with the email for me to send him a birthday gift? (Or… I guess just the PayPal would do? Whatever is appropriate)
Will there be a go fund me ongoing page or is it better to just use the Tachyon Press site for this purpose?
I’m told there won’t be a crowdfunding page, so the three options listed here are it, for now. (That I know of.)
Hi — the website’s last update by Mr. Beagle was over a year ago; any more timely information available?
I would like Mr. Beagle’s PayPal email, please! Thanks for giving us a chance to help out.
I wrote a melody for one of the songs in “The Last Unicorn” and would like to record it. Who do I contact about permission and royalties? That should get Peter a few bucks…
Tried the legal fund email address for paypal and it said it couldn’t receive any more funds at this time.
Please send me his PayPal email address.
Please let me contribute. The Last Unicorn was such an inspiration to me when I was a child, and still brings tears to my eyes today!
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I’m donating for his legal fees but would also like to contribute to his daily living expenses. Please send me his paypal addy to my email (included). And thanks for the reminder on how to do the Humble Bundle!
Thank you!
Hey, folks, i’m the AdrienneLeigh mentioned in the post. I’m trying to get ahold of Ampersand to update the post, but in the meantime, FYI, we’ve got Peter’s immediate needs covered, and for various reasons, donating any more to Peter’s personal PayPal at this point would be counterproductive. So at this point the best ways to donate are via the Humble Bundle or the legal fund. Donating to the legal fund seems less personal, I know, but it DOES free up other money and so it helps just as much overall. If you want, you can still include a personal message with a legal fund donation, and those messages will absolutely get to him.
Would buying a copy of the Last Unicorn graphic novel help him out?
The Last Unicorn was my first favorite movie. My family rented it so often that the video store would occasionally give it to us for free, I suppose my parents didn’t want me to have 24/7 access. I would very much like to help Peter.
I know Peter but I’m not sure the email I have for him still works (or has been compromised). He hasn’t responded to the last emails I sent him. I would like to send him something via PayPal. Can you let me know his current email?
I’d like to send something to help out. I have always loved The Last Unicorn.
Cynthia: None that I know of. There’s the twitter feed, which was updated as recently as last month – but that’s the one and only tweet! I don’t know what’s up with that. It may be that PSB and his representatives just aren’t much into posting online?
Dana:
That’s really neat!
I don’t know for sure who you should contact. But if it were me, I’d try contacting the people at Tachyon Press, PSB’s publisher.
Will try to donate to the legal fund. It just makes me so angry how Beagle was cheated by certain parties.
Heather: There was a problem with the legal fund paypal account, but it’s now been fixed. Thank you.
For all who are interested – the best way to get Peter help is to donate to the legal fund, at http://www.supportpeterbeagle.com. This helps with legal costs, and does free up money. It’s a huge help. The Twitter feed, at @realpeterbeagle, and the Facebook page, The Real Peter S. Beagle, are Peter’s ONLY social media, so please do not post, or use, others, as he doesn’t see them. Right now, books published by Tachyon Publications are indeed, as mentioned elsewhere here, the only ones paying him a royalty.
We, at Clockwork Alchemy, are looking forward to having Peter as one of our guests. We hope that in addition to sharing warm authorly communion with him, he’ll get a chance to reach out to a new audience (or at least an appreciative following.)
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Eric Hegelson – As far as I know, purchasing literally ANYTHING related to The Last Unicorn – books, merchandise, the DVD – currently helps the person Peter is suing. So no, that’s no help.
Ok thanks for the info and the link to his PayPal fund.
Peter has been a huge inspiration to me throughout my life. While I’m unable to help financially I’ll do my best to spread the word. Thank you for being there for Peter. Peter-if you’re reading this thank you so much for helping inspire be to be a kinder, more loving and accepting person. I have a lot of love in my heart for you and your work. Thank you for putting so much of yours into your writing.
-Z
Just in case anyone is beset by the same momentary confusion that I was when doing the HumbleBundle–just leave the charity blank, then move the sliders on a later screen on how much goes to charity vs publisher vs HumbleBundle so that it goes to Tachyon press.
Hi – I’m a friend of one of the friends helping to extricate Peter from the person he’s suing; buying The Last Unicorn won’t help him, but he has a few recent titles that I think aren’t connected in any way to that person (Adrienne, please correct me if I’m wrong): Summerlong; The Story of Kao Yu; In Calabria.
He has a few other recent-ish titles that may or may not be connected to the other person (The Line Between; Tamsin; Sleight of Hand; We Never Talk About My Brother), but the first three are freely and wholly his own.
Please be aware that Peter is not receiving royalties on any books save the Tachyon titles. This means that buying The Last Unicorn and Tamsin don’t help him at all!. Find a good used book store and buy them used, if you must. Tachyon also has a new collection of his in the fall (www.tachyonpublications com), called OVERNEATH, as well as an anthology edited by Peter out very soon, called NEW VOICES OF FANTASY. The http://www.supportpeterbeagle.com site is the one single best way to donate money. If you’d like to do more, let me know!
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