American myth-maker (1910-1977).
Disabled at a
young age after he was hit by a
truck, Palmer was a
science fiction author. He wrote
99 stories before he made his first
sale, but he was soon the
editor of a
series of
sci-fi and
fringe science pulp magazines, including "
Amazing Stories," "
Fate," "
Other Worlds," "
Flying Saucers," and others. And most
importantly, he is primarily
responsible for one of the most beloved
myths of the
modern age...
Palmer is
credited with
suggesting that
flying saucers were
extraterrestrial visitors, he promoted many of the earlier
UFO sightings, and he even started the
stories of a
government cover-up of
UFO reports. He was partially
responsible for the widespread attention given to
Richard Shaver's
demented tales of the
Deros and the
Teros in the
Hollow Earth, and he either
invented or first
publicized the
men in black.
Translation: without Ray Palmer, there would be no stories about
alien abductions. There would be no
Close Encounters of any kind. There would be no
paranoid government conspiracy theories. There would be no "
X-Files". We would not even have
Schwa to keep us
company on
long, dark nights...
Research from "Everything Is Under Control: Conspiracies, Cults, and Cover-Ups" by Robert Anton Wilson, published by HarperCollins, 1998, pp. 335-336.