I FOUND IT! The Origin of Furries!

[Wifetheif]

I read a lot of weird stuff. Currently, I am reading through the Shaver Mystery. This was, aside from Dianetics, SF's strangest episode. Richard Shaver was a mentally disturbed steelworker from Pennsylvania. He mailed Ray Palmer, the editor of Amazing Stories a group of stories that he claimed were true. Palmer polished and published them. Shaver's first story, "I Remember Lemuria" hypothesized that human emotions were the result of interference by strange rays of subterranean dwelling evil robots and that there were secret elevators all over the country that deposited people in hell. Ray Palmer is often called the "father of U.F.O.s" as his publications were the first to give credence to them. The public ate up Shaver's tales of lost Mu and ancient Atlantis technology and Amazing Stories sold a boatload of copies many to people who had no interest in science fiction or fantasy. Among the highlights, Shaver's Marty Stew character begins a relationship with a "horse girl" a beautiful, almost nude woman with hooves and a long shiny tail. (Sound familiar?) These stories first published in 1944 launched nearly all of the post-war conspiracy theories and movements. Some of it was borrowed from things like Theosophy and ancient myth, but most of it came from the minds of Shaver and Palmer. Secret alien technology, government assassinations, the mysterious "they" who are REALLY in charge, Snake women, horse girls, politicians in league with aliens, and, of course, FURRIES! Mystery solved!