Richard S. Shaver

Richard Sharpe Shaver (October 8, 1907 - November 5, 1975) was an American artist and writer, the originator and namesake of "The Shaver Mystery" popularised in the 1940s and 50s by Ray Palmer.

Amazing Stories
Shaver was first published (under his real name) by Amazing Stories as a letter-writer in the January 1944 issue (18.1, p. 206), entitled "AN ANCIENT LANGUAGE?", in which he outlined the Atlantean coded meanings of the letters of the alphabet. Following the printing of this letter, Shaver began active correspondence with editor Ray Palmer, culminating in an extensive body of short fiction, detailing his beliefs as fantasy adventure stories.


 * &mdash; [introduced by Shaver's Open Letter to the World (p. 12-15), in which he outlines his beliefs, asserting the story-behind-the-fiction to be true]
 * &mdash; [introduced by Shaver's Open Letter to the World (p. 12-15), in which he outlines his beliefs, asserting the story-behind-the-fiction to be true]

Other Worlds
(Ray Palmer's pulp sci-fi magazine, briefly edited under the pseudonym Robert N. Webster due to his being under contract to Ziff-Davis, published by Palmer's company Clark Publishing.)



Shaver Mystery Magazine

 * Published by the Shaver Mystery Club and Shaver himself between 1947-1949, seven issues in three volumes, containing the serialisation of "Mandark (Story of the Messiah As Told in the Caves)".

Collected Works

 * "Cult of the Witch Queen" (1946) &mdash; with Bob McKenna
 * "I Remember Lemuria, and the Return of Sathanas" (1948) &mdash; collection of earlier stories from 1945-7
 * "Gods of Venus" (1948)
 * "The Sun-Smiths" (1952)
 * "Beyond the Barrier" (1953)

Aliases
In addition to works published under his own name, Shaver has been credited with some works attributed to Alexander Blade, D. Richard Sharpe, Edwin Benson, Frank Patton, G. H. Irwin, Gerald Vance, Paul Lohrman, Peter Dexter, Richard Dorot, Richard English, Stan Raycraft, The Red Dwarf, and Wes Amherst. (Some of these aliases were shared by several writers of Ziff-Davis pulps.)

Resources

 * Internet Speculative Fiction Database entry on Richard S. Shaver (isfdb.org)