Document Type
Article
Abstract
This article examines the infamous “Shaver Mystery” of the 1940s through the lens of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth, arguing that Richard S. Shaver’s life can be understood through the framework of three distinct but interconnected journeys. The first journey centers on Shaver’s alleged mystical revelations about the Deros and Teros underground civilizations. The second traces his literary collaboration with Amazing Stories editor Ray Palmer, who served as a complex “dark mentor” figure and may have exploited Shaver for commercial gain. The final journey chronicles Shaver’s transition to creating “rock books” and his posthumous recognition as an outsider artist. While the Shaver Mystery itself led to a heroic dead end, Shaver’s later transition to visual—rather than written—art created a redemptive arc that may represent his true heroic journey. This study explores the irony inherent in a hero’s journey based on fraudulent premises but suggests that the triple-journey framework offers new insights into both Shaver’s personal evolution and the larger phenomenon of the Shaver Mystery, while raising broader questions about the potentially iterative nature of the hero’s journey itself.
DOI
10.26736/hs.2025.02.01
Recommended Citation
Beggan, James K.
(2025)
"False Prophet and Profit: The Heroic Journeys of Richard S. Shaver with Ray Palmer as Dark Mentor,"
Heroism Science: Vol. 10:
Iss.
2, Article 1.
DOI: 10.26736/hs.2025.02.01
Available at:
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/heroism-science/vol10/iss2/1
