Ray Palmer was the editor of the popular pulp magazine Amazing Stories.
Biography[]
In 1946, Palmer gained his most significant readership with the series he dubbed "The Shaver Mystery," a series of articles by Richard Sharpe Shaver, who claimed to have secret knowledge of a race of beings he referred to as "Lemurians."[1]
Later, Palmer published a letter from Fred Crisman, who claimed that during his service in World War II, he encountered a supposed Lemurian in Burma.[1]
Crisman and Palmer soon formed a friendship and the following year, Crisman informed Palmer of the Maury Island Incident, a supposed UFO sighting by Harold Dahl, who recovered fragments dropped by the flying object. Crisman mailed Palmer some of the fragments. Palmer then proposed they meet with Kenneth Arnold, another UFO witness.[1]
Palmer offered Arnold $200 to investigate the Maury Island Incident and to write an article for Amazing Stores. Soon after, Palmer claimed that he was visited by an intelligence agent who questioned him about the Maury Island Incident and Shaver's articles. During the agent's visit, Palmer showed him the fragments before locking them inside a file cabinet. The following morning, Palmer's office had been ransacked, the fragments among the missing items.[1]
In 1961, DC Comics honored Palmer by making his name the alter ego of their superhero, the Atom.[1]
Palmer died in 1977. He had no relation to the Palmer family of Twin Peaks, Washington.[1]
Behind the scenes[]
Raymond Arthur Palmer (August 1, 1910 – August 15, 1977) was an American magazine editor, best known for publications such as Amazing Stories and Fate Magazine.
