Gateway Essentials: Chad Oliver

Chad Oliver was the working name that US anthropologist and writer Symmes Chadwick Oliver used for his SF titles. He was born in Ohio but spent most of his life in Texas, where he studied for his MA. He later took a PhD in anthropology at the University of California, which lead to his appointment as a professor of anthropology at the University of Texas, Austin. Oliver’s SF work reflected both his professional training and personal roots: much of it is set in the outdoors of the US Southwest and most of his characters are deeply involved in outdoor activities. Oliver was also always concerned with the depiction of Native American life. His first published story, ‘The Land of Lost Content’, appeared in Super Science Stories in November 1950, and he went on to produce nine novels and two collections. He died in Austin, Texas, in 1993.

We recommend starting with The Winds of Time or First Contact novel, The Shores of Another Sea.

You can find more of Chad Oliver’s work via his Author page on the Gateway website and read about him in his entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.