Richard Sharpe Shaver was an American writer and artist who gained widespread notoriety in the years following World War II. His career was defined by a series of controversial stories published in science fiction magazines, most notably Amazing Stories. These narratives were presented as fictional but were promoted by Shaver and his editor, Ray Palmer, as being fundamentally true. This promotional campaign, which came to be known as "The Shaver Mystery," attracted a large and passionate following, as well as significant skepticism from the broader science fiction community.\n\nShaver's writings centered on his claims of personal experiences with a sinister, technologically advanced ancient civilization residing in vast caverns beneath the Earth's surface. According to Shaver, these subterranean beings possessed fantastic technology that they used to influence human affairs on the surface. His stories blended elements of science fiction, occultism, and conspiracy theories, creating a unique subgenre of pulp literature that blurred the lines between fiction and delusion.\n\nIn his later decades, Shaver shifted his focus toward what he called "rock books." He believed that certain stones contained legible pictures and texts left behind by ancient civilizations. Shaver spent years photographing these rocks, writing about them, and creating paintings based on the images he discerned within them. Although his literary career waned, Shaver achieved posthumous recognition as an outsider artist, with his paintings and photographs being exhibited in galleries across Los Angeles, New York, and other major cities.
