Raymond A. Palmer

Palmer's first issue of Amazing Stories introduced a redesigned logo and the unlikely claim "Every Story Scientifically Accurate"

Palmer's short story "Mr. Yellow Jacket" was cover-featured on Other Worlds in 1951

Palmer's novella "The Metal Emperor", his last story published in an sf magazine, was cover-featured on Imaginative Tales in 1955

As an editor, Palmer tended to favor adventurous, fast-moving space opera-type stories. His tenure at Amazing Stories was notable for his purchase of Isaac Asimov's first professional story, "Marooned Off Vesta".

Palmer was also known for his support of the long-running and controversial Shaver Mystery stories, a series of stories by Richard Sharpe Shaver. Palmer's support of the truth of Shaver's stories (which maintained that the world is dominated by insane inhabitants of the hollow earth), was controversial in the science fiction community. It is unclear whether Palmer believed the Shaver stories to be true, or if he was just using the stories to sell magazines. Palmer asked other writers to do stories in the Shaver genre, the most notable being Rog Phillips.

Palmer began his own science fiction publishing ventures while working for Ziff-Davis, eventually leaving the company to form his own publishing house, Clark Publishing Company, which was responsible for the titles Imagination and Other Worlds, among others. None of these magazines achieved the success of Amazing Stories during the Palmer years, but Palmer published Space World magazine until his death.

In 1948, Palmer and Curtis Fuller co-founded Fate, which covered divination methods, Fortean events, belief in the survival of personality after death, predictive dreams, accounts of ghosts, mental telepathy, archaeology, flying saucer sightings, cryptozoology, alternative medicine, warnings of death, and other paranormal topics, many contributed by readers.

Curtis Fuller and his wife Mary took full control of Fate in 1955, when Palmer sold his interest in the venture. The magazine has continued in publication under a series of editors and publishers to the present day.

Another paranormal magazine Palmer created along the line of Fate was Mystic magazine, which after about two years of publication became Search magazine.

In the 1970s, Palmer also published Ray Palmer's News Letter which was combined into another of his publications called Forum in March 1975.[4]

In the first issue of Fate, Palmer published Kenneth Arnold's report of "flying discs." Arnold's sighting marked the beginning of the modern UFO era, and his story propelled the fledgling Fate to national recognition. Through Fate, Palmer was instrumental in popularizing belief in flying saucers. This interest led him to establish the magazine Flying Saucers.

Palmer's avid interest in spirituality and alternative explanations of reality was reflected in his choice of publications. His interest in the Oahspe Bible, led him on a 15-year search for a copy of the original 1882 edition published by Oahspe Publishing Assoc., New York and London. Although a later edited and revised edition was published in 1891 and reprinted over the years, the original 1882 Oahspe Bible was not available until Palmer republished a facsimile of it in 1960. It is often referred to as "The Palmer Edition" or "The Green Oahspe" among Oahspe readers. He continued to publish and reprint later editions to which he added an index and editor's notes. Oahspe was reported by the spiritualist medium John B. Newbrough to have come as automatic writing through his hands on the newly invented typewriter.

Palmer was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation from early 1953 to mid 1954, after being falsely accused of spreading Soviet Communist propaganda in several Mystic magazine articles. Chicago FBI Special Agents interviewed Palmer after he ran a story, "Venusians Walk Our Streets", by science fiction author Frank M. Vest. The story claimed the FBI laboratories were researching a mystery metal from Venus. The FBI did a records search, and found that their laboratories had never received any such metal and that no such research was being performed. When confronted with this falsehood, Palmer claimed that he did not catch the FBI reference and the "mystery metal", in his final edit, but quickly apologized for the mistake, and offered to run a retraction.

Palmer told the Special Agents that the magazine received around 50 letters about flying saucer sightings each week, and that he forwarded the most feasible-sounding ones to the Central Intelligence Agency's Chicago office.

The FBI released Palmer's FBI file on 22 June 2018, under the Freedom of Information Act.[5]

• The Time Ray of Jandra, Wonder Stories (June 1930)
• The Man Who Invaded Time, Science Fiction Digest (October 1932)
• Escape from Antarctica, Science Fiction Digest (Juneau 1933)
• The Girl from Venus, Science Fiction Digest (September 1933)
• The Return to Venus, Fantasy Magazine (May 1934)
• The Vortex World, Fantasy Magazine (1934)
• The Time Tragedy, Wonder Stories (December 1934)
• Three from the Test-Tube, Wonder Stories (1935)
• The Symphony of Death, Amazing Stories (December 1935)
• Matter Is Conserved, Astounding Science-Fiction (April 1938)
• Catalyst Planet, Thrilling Wonder Stories (August 1938)
• The Blinding Ray, Amazing Stories (August 1938)
• Outlaw of Space, Amazing Stories (August 1938)
• Black World (Part 1 of 2), Amazing Stories (March 1940)
• Black World (Part 2 of 2), Amazing Stories (April 1940)
• The Vengeance of Martin Brand (Part 1 of 2), Amazing Stories (August 1942)
• The Vengeance of Martin Brand (Part 2 of 2), Amazing Stories (September 1942)
• King of the Dinosaurs, Fantastic Adventures (October 1945)
• Toka and the Man Bats, Fantastic Adventures (February 1946)
• Toka Fights the Big Cats, Fantastic Adventures (December 1947)
• In the Sphere of Time, Planet Stories (Summer 1948)
• The Justice of Martin Brand, Other Worlds Science Stories (July 1950)
• The Hell Ship, Worlds of If (March 1952)
• Mr. Yellow Jacket, Other Worlds (June 1951)
• I Flew in a Flying Saucer (Part 1 of 2), Other Worlds Science Stories (October 1951)
• I Flew in a Flying Saucer (Part 2 of 2), Other Worlds Science Stories (December 1951)
• The Metal Emperor, Imaginative Tales (November 1955)

• The Coming of the Saucers (with Kenneth Arnold) (1952)
• The Secret World (with Richard Shaver) (1975)