Richard Sharpe Shaver: Some Stones Are Ancient Books

Cult sci-fi author and controversial theorist Richard Sharpe Shaver devoted his life to decoding messages from ancient civilizations left behind in rocks

Science fiction writer Richard Sharpe Shaver believed that rocks were books imprinted with valuable information about such mythical ancient races as the Lemurians and Atlanteans. His controversial stories about an advanced prehistoric civilization and a race of evil beings living at the center of the earth appeared in Amazing Stories and other landmark sci-fi publications of the '40s and '50s. A decade later, he was living in relative isolation and devoting himself to rock book research, a course of study that he shared with a devoted group of correspondents. Shaver believed that ancient leaders had left behind images embedded into rocks, which he then tried to interpret. Some Stones Are Ancient Books contains a generous selection of Rokfogos accompanied by hand-typed texts in which Shaver explains-not always patiently-all that can be seen in these stones. Also included are facsimiles of his handmade books and publications, all of which he felt to be of incalculable importance to civilization. Richard Sharpe Shaver (1907-75) was an artist and author whose work frequently appeared in 1940s science fiction magazines such as Amazing Stories. He was the center of the Shaver Mystery, a controversy regarding his alleged discovery of a prehistoric civilization, which sparked mass interest and a devoted following that continues to this day.