Raymond Alfred Palmer (August 1, 1910 – August 15, 1977) was an American author and magazine editor. Influential in the first wave of science fiction fandom, his first fiction stories were published in 1935.
Ziff Davis named him editor of the science fiction magazine Amazing Stories in 1938 and editor of its sister publication, Fantastic Stories, in 1939. He began promoting the "Shaver Mystery", a series of stories about ancient aliens, lost civilizations, and underground inhabitants, in 1944. He claimed the stories were true, which caused a deep rift in science fiction fandom and readership. On the orders of the magazine's owners, he ended the Shaver Mystery in 1948.
Palmer established his own publishing house in 1947. After leaving Ziff Davis in 1949, he began publishing the magazines Fate, Other Worlds Science Stories, Mystic (later renamed Search), and Flying Saucers, among others.
He wrote a short autobiography titled Martian Diary, co-wrote The Coming of the Saucers with Kenneth Arnold, edited Richard Sharpe Shaver The Hidden World, and republished the original edition of the spiritualist work, Oahspe: A New Bible.
Palmer frequently pushed fringe beliefs and conspiracy theories, and was investigated by the FBI at least once. He was linked to an inquiry into the publication of pornographic paperback books, but his involvement was tangential at best.
Raymond Palmer's editing of Amazing Stories has a mixed legacy, primarily due to his promotion of the Shaver Mystery. His editing of Other Worlds Science Stories has been praised, and he is an important early figure in the history of the flying saucer and New Age movements.
Early life Raymond Alfred Palmer was born August 1, 1910, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His parents were Roy and Helen ( Steber) Palmer. His father was of Irish ancestry who had held jobs as an electrician, machinist, and timekeeper at a marble company. He became a firefighter in 1911. The Palmer family were Ulster Protestants who emigrated from Northern Ireland. According to Palmer family lore, the Pricketts (as they were then known) were driven out of Northern Ireland by Catholics. Once in the United States, the family converted to Catholicism. His mother was from northern Wisconsin, the daughter of German Lutheran immigrants.
Roy Clarence Palmer was an alcoholic whose excessive drinking left the family impoverished. He also physically beat his wife.
The Palmers lived a peripatetic existence, moving to a new home almost every year from 1912 to 1921. Ray's sister Evelyn was born in 1917, and his brother David in 1918. The family moved into the home of Ray's paternal grandparents in 1920 after Helen Palmer's health declined severely.
When Palmer was seven years old, he ran out into traffic. His leg was caught in the spokes of a passing truck, and he was spun around and beaten against the pavement until it came to a stop. The accident badly broke several of his vertebrae. Roy Palmer refused to have his son taken to a hospital, probably because the family could not pay. A social worker visited a few days later, and took Ray to a hospital. According to Ray's friend, Frances Hamling, Ray became infected with Pott's disease (tuberculosis of the spine), and by the age of nine could no longer stand or walk.
Palmer underwent a spinal column bone graft performed by Dr. Frederick J. Gaenslen. Pott's disease is often accompanied by kyphosis (hunchback), and Gaenslen's standard recuperative treatment required the patient to be in the prone position in a Bradford frame (a full-body metal rectangle with a canvas sleeve) for up to a year. Palmer's graft became infected, and he was given morphine for the pain. Combination of illnesses and trauma stunted Ray's growth, and as an adult he stood just slightly over tall. He spent most of the next five years prone in a Bradford frame.
Palmer's mother died of peritonitis and pneumonia on January 26, 1923, and Palmer blamed his father for his disability. As he grew older, he became embittered, isolated, stubborn, and plagued by an inferiority complex. He was embarrassed by his hunchback, and worried that he would never lead a normal life.
Ray's paternal grandparents moved in with the family to care for the children. Roy Palmer remarried in 1924. His new wife, Mathilda, was 14 years his junior. In 1928, Mathilda gave birth to Ray's half-brother, Robert. Ray delivered newspaper to make money, and his father seized the income to make Ray pay for "room and board".
During his convalescence, Ray was largely educated by a tutor provided by the Milwaukee public school system. He read on a wide range of topics, sometimes as many as 15 books a day. It was during this period that he became a fan of Ancient Egyptian history and science fiction. Palmer recovered enough to begin attending Washington High School in February 1924. He left in June 1925, most likely due to a relapse in health. He spent two more years bedridden. At the age of 16, Palmer enrolled at St. Anne's School, a Catholic school in Milwaukee. After completing the ninth grade, he dropped out.
Palmer began reading Amazing Stories magazine after discovering its first issue in the spring of 1926. He wrote his first science fiction story, "The Time Ray of Jandra", in high school. His English teacher was so impressed, she read it aloud to her class.
Roy Palmer moved his family once again in 1929.
Fanzines and fandom Ray got a job as a bookkeeper at the P.J. Lavies sheet metal company after high school, and began writing short science fiction stories in his spare time. Palmer had several of his letters to the editor published in Amazing Stories. To encourage science fiction fandom, the magazine published addresses of its letter-writers. Walter Dennis, a Chicago fan, traveled to Milwaukee to meet Ray.
Palmer and Dennis created a "Science Correspondence Club" in May 1930 to help fans connect with one another. This was, according to science fiction historian Mike Ashley, the first organized sci fi fandom group.
The two men also created and edited the first fanzine, The Comet, which first appeared in May 1930. Initially focused on spreading the word about new scientific discoveries and inventions, it refocused on science fiction writing in its second issue in July 1930. During Palmer's second bout with TB, the magazine's name was changed to Cosmology. Its publication became erratic due to lack of funds, and in January 1932 Palmer resigned as editor.
The Science Correspondence Club was reorganized as the International Scientific Association in January 1932. Although it disbanded the next month, by then it was the longest-lasting science fiction fandom club in the United States.
Palmer co-founded a second fanzine, The Time Traveller, with Forrest J Ackerman, Julius Schwartz, and Mort Weisinger. It began publication in December 1932 and lasted just over a year.
Second illness In May 1930, Palmer was diagnosed with Pott's disease again. It caused the bone graft and six of his vertebrae to disintegrate. In September 1930, Palmer went to Muirdale Tuberculosis Sanatorium. A physician told him he had six months to live until his spinal cord was exposed. The tuberculosis was already in remission, but Muirdale physicians did not want to operate and debride the bone for fear of reactivating the infection. Ray only received palliative care. For the next year, Palmer lay flat on his back, holding himself rigid and visualizing his body healing itself. When he did not die, doctors ordered new X-rays and discovered that the damaged area had become encased in a new mass of bone. Palmer was discharged in 1931.
Palmer biographer Richard Toronto suggests that Ray Palmer now showed many of the signs of a classic trauma victim. He sought out any way in which to build his resilience, a typical coping method. He also exhibited a strong urge to control the world around him. Palmer often spoke of "knowing" that he would survive Pott's disease. Toronto notes that "precognition of survival" is not uncommon among victims of trauma. To show his resilience, Palmer temporarily left his job as a bookkeeper at P.J. Lavies and became a steeplejack, installing aluminum roofs and gutters. He also took up bowling, jogging, and softball. To control his world, Palmer came to believe that his dreams could show him visions of what was happening around the world at that moment, and could foretell the future. He had visualized his own healing, and now believed that goal-directed visualization and imagination had not only been critical to his own survival but was critical to humanity's survival.
Writing
Throughout the 1930s, Palmer had his stories published in science fiction magazines of the era. Palmer's first professionally published story was "The Time Ray of Jandra" in Wonder Stories in June 1930. Lester del Rey believed Palmer was the first fan to publish professionally.
About 1932, Palmer joined the Milwaukee Fictioneers, a group of about 20 or so working writers who met every other week to talk about their stories, discuss writing, and figure out ways to sell their work. Members included founder Lawrence A. Keating, Moritz "Morry" Zenoff, Larry Sternig, Leo A. Schmidt, Bernard Wirth, Dudley Brooks, Gus Marx, Al Nelson, Roger Sherman Hoar (who wrote under the pen name Ralph Milne Farley), Stanley G. Weinbaum, Robert Bloch, Jim Kjelgaard, and Arthur Tofte. The Fictioneers were the most significant influence on Palmer's writing.
In 1936, the Fictioneers published Dawn of Flame, a fix-up of two of Stanley Weinbaum's unpublished stories ("Dawn of Flame" and "The Black Flame"). It was the first anthology ever published featured the work of a science fiction author. Palmer wrote the foreword. Weinbaum's wife felt it was far too personal, and asked that a new forward be written. Lawrence Keating wrote the replacement. Only six copies of the "Palmer edition" were sold, and only 250 copies sold of the "Keating edition" (many of them unbound).
In March 1936, Palmer began writing crime stories full-time for Shade Publishing Company's Associated Authors subsidiary, which published racy detective magazines. His pay was $150 a month. Palmer wrote two entries for the "Jim Grant" character created by Hoar as well as stories for Murder Mysteries, True Gang Life, Scarlet Adventuress, Scarlet Gang Stories, Spicy Detective, and Thrilling Wonder Stories. Among the pen names Palmer used for his crime fiction were Alexander Blade, Henry Cade, G.H. Irwin, Joseph J. Millard, Frank Patton, Wallace Quitman, Rap, A.R. Steber, Morris J. Steele, Robert N. Webster, and Rae Winters.
From 1935 to 1938, Palmer also wrote science fiction for Amazing Stories, Astounding Science Fiction, Marvel Tales, and Wonder Stories. Palmer was a prolific writer. He later estimated that from December 1934 to March 1935 he wrote 150,000 words for pulp magazines.
Palmer's personal life was going through a difficult period. Roy and Hilda separated in 1933, and moved out of Milwaukee in 1934. When Roy Palmer returned to Milwaukee in 1936, he was divorced. One day, Roy moved out, taking everything with him. Ray returned home to an empty apartment. Ray was now in charge of 19-year-old Evelyn, 18-year-old David, and eight-year-old Robert. Ray quit his job as a bookkeeper in March 1936 to write full-time. His father lost his job in June 1937 after a fire at his place of employment, and Palmer returned to work at the P.J. Lavies sheet metal firm in order to support his father. The firm shut down about February 1938 when the owner fell seriously ill.
Ziff Davis magazines