HIDDEN WORLD Volume 10: THE SHAVER MYSTERY

Reading through the reprints of the Hidden World series has been an incredible experience. Originating in Amazing Stories back in the 1940s, the Shaver Mystery has had a long run, much longer than any TV show or comic book superhero.

**************

Excerpt:

Publisher Ray Palmer obviously had no way of knowing how he would be opening the flood gates to a mad house when he published Shaver's original piece, "I Remember Lemuria." Though he might pretend to, Palmer obviously had no way of knowing that this eccentric welder at the Ford Motor company would soon be attacked for his beliefs by the die hard skeptics on one hand, and supported so strongly on the other by die hard believers.

Shaver's descriptions of a hellish underworld inhabited by the Dero with their ancient mind control equipment stirred the public's imagination, but was it really their imagination he was stirring or a subliminal memory of an ancient world gone totally mad due to the radioactive rays of the sun?

We will never know for sure, but there is still a great interest in the topics Shaver discussed as if these were topics that were part of our daily news feeds. That is why we are so exuberant over the new cache of "lost" articles by Shaver which we started publishing in the last issue and will continue with throughout the rest of the series.

We received these stories through the Shaver Mystery Yahoo Group, an e mail chain letter group we actively participate in, exchanging hundreds of posts with other members on a regular basis. The group is very ably moderated by Richard Toronto from whom you can find out more by simply going to www.ShaverTron.Com. If you have things in common with the stated purpose of the group you will be welcome to join.

This issue we are proud to present the "lost" Shaver story entitled "The Plotters." - well yes our world is controlled and now you can find out what Shaver had to say on this ever captivating subject.

And if you notice a bit of "distortion" on a couple of the pages, please accept our formal apologies. Due to the nature and age of the original manuscript there might be what we call in printer's lingo a bit of offset feedback on several of the sheets where the printing actually shows through from the other side of the paper. Our capable printer has attempted to remedy this situation as much as possible.

All things considered, we are attempting as best we can to save all Sixteen Volumes of Hidden World so that there will be a record of Shaver's claims for generations to come. The original paper stock was very pulpish and the print has started to fade with the decades, and the pages themselves have started to get frayed and ripped as they stay longer in the hands of collectors.

So let us tip our hat and raise our drinking glass to the heroes of our stories who have created a fabulous genera be it science fact or science fiction. Read on dear friends. Please read on!