Symmes Chadwick Oliver (30 March 1928 – 9 August 1993) was an American

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms an ...

and

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

and

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

writer. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father was a surgeon and his mother a nurse. When he was young he suffered from rheumatic fever and as a result spent some time as an invalid, a time during which he became interested in science fiction. He spent most of his life in Austin, Texas where he was twice chairman of the Department of Anthropology of the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. He was also one of the founders of the Turkey City Writer's Workshop. He first attended the University in 1946 as a student and, apart from a brief sojourn to

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

to obtain his Ph.D., he remained there in some capacity until his death, 47 years later. He first had a story published in 1950. His science fiction is generally classified as

anthropological science fiction The anthropologist Leon E. Stover says of science fiction's relationship to anthropology: "Anthropological science fiction enjoys the philosophical luxury of providing answers to the question "What is man?" while anthropology the science is still ...

because he often used insights from his professional work to inform his fictional writing. An avid fly fisherman, Professor Oliver supported the Guadalupe River Chapter of Trout Unlimited and the cold water fishery downstream from Canyon Dam. Numerous scenes in his writings made reference to actions and experiences related to fishing in moving water (e.g. wading a river in "Shores of Another Sea").

Bibliography

Novels

* '' Mists of Dawn'' (1952) * ''Shadows in the Sun'' (1954) * ''The Winds of Time'' (1956) * ''Unearthly Neighbors'' (1960, revised in 1984) * ''The Wolf is My Brother'' (1967) * ''The Shores of Another Sea'' (1971) * ''Giants in the Dust'' (1976) * ''Broken Eagle'' (1989) * ''The Cannibal Owl'' (1994)

Collections

* '' Another Kind'' (1955) * ''The Edge of Forever'' (1971) * ''A Star Above and Other Stories'' (2003) * ''Far from This Earth and Other Stories'' (2003)

Selected short fiction

* "Transfusion" (1959) * "Blood's a Rover" in Robert Silverberg (ed), ''Deep Space'', 1976. Not to be confused with a proposed novel of the same title by

Harlan Ellison Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. Robert Bloch, the author of '' Psycho'' ...

. * "The Shore of Tomorrow", novelette in ''

Startling Stories ''Startling Stories'' was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1955 by publisher Ned Pines' Standard Magazines. It was initially edited by Mort Weisinger, who was also the editor of ''Thrilling Wonder Stories'', ...

'' March, 1953

External links

*
A comprehensive bibliography
of Chad Oliver, including two interviews.
Biographical entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oliver, Chad 1928 births 1993 deaths 20th-century American novelists American male novelists American science fiction writers Western (genre) writers Novelists from Texas American male short story writers 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American anthropologists