Shaver, Richard S
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.

(1907-1975) US author, author of some sf stories (some under the House Name Paul Lohrman) but now remembered almost exclusively for his hoax-like sequence of Shaver Mystery stories, presented as based on fact, published in Raymond A Palmer's Amazing Stories 1945-1947, beginning with "I Remember Lemuria" in March 1945 (see Theosophy). It brought over 2500 letters in response, and the sequence boosted Amazing's circulation though at the same time alienating many fans; the June 1947 Amazing was an all-Shaver issue.
Most of these pieces were collaborations, first with Palmer, and later with other writers including Greye La Spina and Chester S Geier. A selection of the "articles" was published as I Remember Lemuria & The Return of Sathanas (coll 1948); the Shaver Mystery sequence, beginning with The Shaver Mystery, Volume One (coll 2011), assembles similar material. Shaver continued to release the same sort of fiction/nonfiction briefly in Other Worlds (still as Palmer's protégé), and enjoyed a further comeback in Palmer's small-circulation The Hidden World in 1961. Essentially these "articles" comprise a series of messages from an Underground world and, von Däniken-like, establish a new, conspiracy-oriented, highly lurid history and Cosmology in which humans (it transpires) have long been manipulated by "deros" – short for detrimental Robots, malign Secret Masters – through various Psi Powers.
Shaver's writings were likely influenced by the fiction of A Merritt, particularly The Moon Pool (fixup 1919). Until the end of his life he maintained that he genuinely believed what he wrote. The time periods when he believed he had been exploring the cavern world he had actually spent in mental hospitals. In the 1960s he developed a reputation as an outsider artist after discovering "photographs" of cavern dwellers in the rocks on his property and using them as a basis for his paintings. [JC/PN/LW]
see also: Hollow Earth; Paranoia; Pseudoscience; SF Magazines.
Richard Sharpe Shaver
born Berwick, Pennsylvania: 7 October 1907
died Summit, Arkansas: 5 November 1975
works
series
The Shaver Mystery
- The Shaver Mystery, Book One (Medford, Oregon: Armchair Fiction, 2011) [coll: Shaver Mystery: pb/R G Jones]
- The Shaver Mystery, Book Two (Medford, Oregon: Armchair Fiction, 2011) [coll: Shaver Mystery: pb/R G Jones]
- The Shaver Mystery, Book Three (Medford, Oregon: Armchair Fiction, 2012) [coll: Shaver Mystery: pb/Arnold Kohn]
- The Shaver Mystery, Book Four (Medford, Oregon: Armchair Fiction, 2013) [coll: Shaver Mystery: pb/R G Jones]
- The Shaver Mystery, Book Five (Medford, Oregon: Armchair Fiction, 2014) [coll: Shaver Mystery: pb/R G Jones]
- The Shaver Mystery, Book Six (Medford, Oregon: Armchair Fiction, 2015) [coll: Shaver Mystery: pb/Bob Hilbreth]
- The Shaver Mystery, Book Seven (Medford, Oregon: Armchair Fiction, 2017) [coll: Shaver Mystery: pb/R G Jones]
- The Shaver Mystery, Book Eight (Medford, Oregon: Armchair Fiction, 2020) [coll: Shaver Mystery: pb/R G Jones]
Shaver Mystery Compendium
A resorting of the Shaver Mystery stories.
- The Shaver Mystery Compendium: Volume 1 (no place given: Nighttime Editions, 2019) [coll: Shaver Mystery Compendium: pb/R G Jones]
- The Shaver Mystery Compendium: Volume 2 (no place given: Nighttime Editions, 2019) [coll: Shaver Mystery Compendium: pb/Walter Parke]
- The Shaver Mystery Compendium: Volume 3 (no place given: Nighttime Editions, 2019) [coll: Shaver Mystery Compendium: pb/Harold W McCauley]
- The Shaver Mystery Compendium: Volume 4 (no place given: Nighttime Editions, 2019) [coll: Shaver Mystery Compendium: pb/R G Jones]
- The Shaver Mystery Compendium: Volume 5 (no place given: Nighttime Editions, 2019) [coll: Shaver Mystery Compendium: pb/R G Jones]
- The Shaver Mystery Compendium: Volume 6 (no place given: Nighttime Editions, 2019) [coll: Shaver Mystery Compendium: pb/R G Jones]
- The Shaver Mystery Compendium: Volume 7 (no place given: Nighttime Editions, 2019) [coll: Shaver Mystery Compendium: pb/Malcolm Smith]
- The Shaver Mystery Compendium: Volume 8 (no place given: Nighttime Editions, 2019) [coll: Shaver Mystery Compendium: pb/Leo Summers]
individual titles
- I Remember Lemuria & The Return of Sathanas (Evanston, Illinois: Venture Books, 1948) [coll: hb/]
- Of Stegner's Folly (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2010) [story: ebook: first appeared March 1952 If: na/]
- The Dark Goddess (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2010) [story: ebook: first appeared February 1953 Imagination: na/]
- The Plotters (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2010) [story: ebook: first appeared December 1948 Amazing as by Alexander Blade: na/]
- Daughters of the Night (no place given: Project Gutenberg, 2010) [story: ebook: first appeared December 1948 Amazing: na/]
- Ice City of the Gorgon (Medford, Oregon: Armchair Fiction, 2011) with Chester S Geier [dos: first appeared June 1948 Amazing: pb/R G Jones]
- The Sun-Smiths (Medford, Oregon: Armchair Fiction, 2018) [dos: first appeared July-October 1952 Other Worlds Science Stories: pb/Michael Smith]
about the author
- Richard Toronto. War over Lemuria: Richard Shaver, Ray Palmer and the Strangest Chapter of 1940s Science Fiction (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2013) [nonfiction: Ray Palmer: pb/R G Jones]
- Fred Nadis. The Man from Mars: Ray Palmer's Amazing Pulp Journey (New York: Jeremy Tarcher/Penguin, 2013) [nonfiction: hb/Tom McKeveny]
links
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