A Shaver Mystery Mystery

Two things we appreciate here at Bill Ectric’s Place are literary research and the Richard Shaver Mystery, so here’s a fun article by Marq Jonz, aka Mark Jones, from his Dero-influenced blog, The Abandondero.

"Shaver Welding Dero" - art by Mikey Georgeson inspired by Richard Shaver's account of welding equipment attuned to Dero mind-tamper
“Shaver Welding Dero” – art by Mikey Georgeson inspired by Richard Shaver’s account of welding equipment attuned to Dero mind-tamper

Excerpt:

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (isfdb.com) lists “Return of a Demon” as Richard S. Shaver’s first published story.  Fantastic Adventures published the story, a weird tale, in its May 1943 issue.  The magazine credits the story to Alexander Blade, one of the house pseudonyms of its publisher Ziff-Davis Publications.  Given that twelve other writers used this same pseudonym, how sure can we be that Shaver wrote this story?

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