Roger Sherman Hoar
Encyclopedia
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
, state of Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. He also wrote science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
under the pseudonym of "Ralph Milne Farley".
Family
The Harvard-educated Hoar was the product of a remarkable New England family—the son of Sherman HoarSherman Hoar
-External links:* By Thomas Townsend Sherman* at Political Graveyard* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harvard_#Statue Wikipedia: John Harvard Statue...
, grandson of former US Attorney General Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, great-grandson of Samuel Hoar
Samuel Hoar
Samuel Hoar was a United States lawyer and politician. A member of a prominent political family in Massachusetts, he was a leading 19th century lawyer of that state. He was associated with the Federalist Party until its decline after the war of 1812. Over his career, a prominent Massachusetts...
, and great-great grandson of American founding father Roger Sherman
Roger Sherman
Roger Sherman was an early American lawyer and politician, as well as a founding father. He served as the first mayor of New Haven, Connecticut, and served on the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence, and was also a representative and senator in the new republic...
, a signer of the Declaration of Independence
Declaration of independence
A declaration of independence is an assertion of the independence of an aspiring state or states. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another nation or failed nation, or are breakaway territories from within the larger state...
-- as well as a remarkable individual in his own right.
Politician
Hoar served in the Massachusetts State Senate and campaigned for women suffrage. Hoar was also an organizer and major force behind the enactment of the Employee Unemployment Benefits Act, served on the Commission to Compile Information & Data, 1917, taught mathematics and engineering, patented a system for aiming large guns by the stars, and authored landmark works on constitutional and patent law.Writer
Under the pseudonym Ralph Milne Farley, Hoar wrote a considerable amount of pulp-magazine science fiction during the period between the world wars, appearing in such publications as Argosy All-Story Weekly, Weird TalesWeird Tales
Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....
, True Gang Life, and Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories was an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction...
, as well as occasional essays for The American Mercury
The American Mercury
The American Mercury was an American magazine published from 1924 to 1981. It was founded as the brainchild of H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine featured writing by some of the most important writers in the United States through the 1920s and 1930s...
, Scientific American
Scientific American
Scientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics...
, and science fiction fanzine
Science fiction fanzine
A science fiction fanzine is an amateur or semi-professional magazine published by members of science fiction fandom, from the 1930s to the present day...
s. His works include The Radio Man
The Radio Man
The Radio Man is a science fiction novel by author Ralph Milne Farley. It is the first book in Farley's Radio Man series. It was first published in book form in 1948 by Fantasy Publishing Company, Inc. in an edition of 1,000 copies...
and its numerous sequels, chiefly interplanetary and inner-world adventure yarns in the tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...
, with whom he was friends; Hoar also wrote a number of archetypal time-travel-paradox tales, collected in book form as The Omnibus of Time, and "The House of Ecstasy," told in the second-person and frequently reprinted since its initial appearance in Weird Tales (April 1938 issue). Hoar's other pseudonyms include Robert S. Lerch, R. S. Lerch and L. R. Sherman.
Upon relocating to the Midwest, where he worked as a corporate attorney for the firm of Bucyrus-Erie, Hoar joined the Milwaukee Fictioneers, whose members included Stanley G. Weinbaum
Stanley G. Weinbaum
Stanley Grauman Weinbaum was an American science fiction author. His career in science fiction was short but influential...
, Robert Bloch
Robert Bloch
Robert Albert Bloch was a prolific American writer, primarily of crime, horror and science fiction. He is best known as the writer of Psycho, the basis for the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock...
, and Raymond A. Palmer
Raymond A. Palmer
Raymond Arthur Palmer was the influential editor of Amazing Stories from 1938 through 1949, when he left publisher Ziff-Davis to publish and edit Fate Magazine, and eventually many other magazines and books through his own publishing houses, including Amherst Press and Palmer Publications...
. When Chicago-based Ziff-Davis Publishing Company bought the ailing Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories was an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction...
in 1938, Hoar was offered, but declined, the magazine's editorship and recommended Palmer, who held the position through the 1940s.
As Roger Sherman Hoar
- The Tariff Manual. Privately printed, 1912.
- Constitutional Conventions: Their Nature, Powers, and Limitations. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1917.
- Patents: What a Business Executive Should Know About Patents. New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1926. Revised edition: Patent Tactics and Law. 1935, 1950.
- Conditional Sales: Law and Local Practices for Executive and Lawyer. New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1929. Revised edition: 1937.
- Unemployment Insurance in Wisconsin. karley South Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Stuart Press, 1932. Revised edition: Wisconsin Unemployment Insurance, 1934.
As Ralph Milne Farley
- Smothered Seas (story, with Stanley G. Weinbaum) . Published in Astounding Stories, January 1936.
- Dangerous Love (stories) . London: Utopian Publications, 1946.
- The Immortals (novel). Toronto: Popular Publications Inc., 1947.
- The Radio ManThe Radio ManThe Radio Man is a science fiction novel by author Ralph Milne Farley. It is the first book in Farley's Radio Man series. It was first published in book form in 1948 by Fantasy Publishing Company, Inc. in an edition of 1,000 copies...
(novel). Los Angeles: Fantasy Publishing Co., 1948. Paperback edition retitled An Earthman on Venus (Avon Books). [1st of "Radio Man" series] - The Hidden UniverseThe Hidden UniverseThe Hidden Universe is a collection of two science fiction novellas by Ralph Milne Farley. It was first published in 1950 by Fantasy Publishing Company, Inc. in an edition of 700 copies of which 500 were hardback. The novellas originally appeared in the magazine Amazing Stories....
(two novellas). Los Angeles: Fantasy Publishing Co., 1950. - The Omnibus of TimeThe Omnibus of TimeThe Omnibus of Time is a collection of science fiction short stories by Ralph Milne Farley. It was first published in 1950 by Fantasy Publishing Company, Inc. in an edition of 1,500 copies...
(stories). Los Angeles: Fantasy Publishing Co., 1950. - Strange WorldsStrange Worlds (collection)Strange Worlds is a collection of a science fiction novel and two science fiction novellas by Ralph Milne Farley. It was first published in 1953 by Fantasy Publishing Company, Inc. in an edition of 300 copies. The book is an omnibus of Farley's earlier books, The Radio Man and The Hidden Universe...
(contains The Radio Man and The Hidden Universe). Los Angeles: Fantasy Publishing Co., 1953. - The Radio Beasts (novel). New York: Ace BooksAce BooksAce Books is the oldest active specialty publisher of science fiction and fantasy books. The company was founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn, and began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns...
, 1964. [2nd of "Radio Man" series] - The Radio Planet (novel). New York: Ace BooksAce BooksAce Books is the oldest active specialty publisher of science fiction and fantasy books. The company was founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn, and began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns...
, 1964. [3rd of "Radio Man" series] - Tong War (novel, written in collaboration with E. Hoffman Price). Chertsey, England: Blue Mushroom, 2002.
- Pe-Ra, Daughter of the Sun (novella). Rialto, California: Pulpville Press, 2005.
- The Radio Minds (novel). Rialto, California: Pulpville Press, 2005. [4th of "Radio Man" series]
- The Ralph Milne Farley Collection Book 1 (stories). Rialto, California: Pulpville Press, 2005.
- The Ralph Milne Farley Collection Book 2 (stories). Rialto, California: Pulpville Press, 2005.
- The Golden City (novel). Rialto, California: Pulpville Press, 2006.
- The Radio War (novel). Rialto, California: Pulpville Press, 2006.
- The Radio Menace (novel). Rialto, California: Pulpville Press, 2008.
External links
- CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS:Their Nature, Powers, and Limitations
- Hoar Family Papers, 1774-1940 (Bulk 1860-1918)
- Unemployment Insurance In Wisconsin 1932
- The Radio Beast Review
- Radio Free Venus
- Radio Pellucidar
- Sherman Genealogy Including Families of Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, England By Thomas Townsend Sherman
- Hoar-Baldwin-Foster-Sherman family of Massachusetts at Political Graveyard