Roger Sherman Hoar was an American lawyer, statesman, and educator. He wrote on law and was also known as the author of science fiction under the name of Ralph Milne Farley.
Background
Roger Sherman Hoar was born on April 8, 1887, in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. He was a son of Sherman Hoar, a lawyer and a member of Congress representing Massachusetts, and Caroline Prescott Hoar.
Many of Roger’s ancestors were related to politics and law. His grandfather, Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, his great-grandfather, Samuel Hoar, and his great-great-grandfather, Roger Sherman, were all politicians and lawyers. The latter was one of the signers of the United States Declaration of Independence.
Education
Roger Sherman Hoar was a student of Phillips Exeter Academy. In 1909, he obtained his Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University. Two years later, he received his law degree at Harvard Law School.
Career
Roger Sherman Hoar started his career from military service at the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. Then, he earned his living as an assistant attorney general in Massachusetts. In addition, he tried his hand as an instructor of engineering, physics, and patent law at Harvard University and after at the graduate school of the Marquette University in Milwaukee.
Then he found a job at Bucyrus-Erie Company where he served as a corporate attorney and headed its legal and patent department from 1921 to 1954. He also worked as a patent engineer and served as state senator for Wisconsin.
In addition to books Hoar wrote on constitutional and patent law, he authored many science fiction novels for such pulp-magazines as, Argosy All-Story Weekly, Weird Tales, True Gang Life, and Amazing Stories, during the interwar period under the pen name Ralph Milne Farley. His archetypal time-travel-paradox tales were gathered in books titled ‘The Omnibus of Time’ and ‘The House of Ecstasy’. Besides, Hoar contributed to the Boston Post as a sports reporter.
Views
Roger Sherman Hoar stood for women suffrage. He was an active participant of the elaboration and enactment of the Employee Unemployment Benefits Act.