Wilmar H. Shiras
Wilmar H. Shiras was an American science fiction writer known for her influential works in the genre. Born in Boston and later moving to California, she began her writing career with short stories, the most notable being her novella "In Hiding," published in 1948. This story, which centers on a young orphan named Timothy Paul who possesses advanced intellectual abilities due to a mutation from radiation exposure, became the cornerstone of her best-known work, *Children of the Atom*. This collection chronicles the experiences of Timothy and other children with similar abilities in a world that fears their potential superiority.
Shiras's writing often explored themes of mutation and evolution, reflecting societal anxieties about progress and the unknown. Her work, published by Gnome Press—an early publisher of science fiction—helped pave the way for the genre's acceptance in mainstream literature. Although she continued writing into the 1960s, she is most remembered for her contributions during a pivotal time in science fiction history. Shiras passed away in 1990, leaving behind a legacy that has influenced contemporary narratives in the genre, including modern interpretations found in comics and films like the X-Men series.
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Wilmar H. Shiras
Author
- Born: September 23, 1908
- Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts
- Died: December 23, 1990
Biography
Wilmar House Shiras was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, and began writing after moving to California. She wrote a number of short science-fiction (SF) stories, some of which were combined into a single work, Children of the Atom. This is the book for which she is best remembered.
Her first novel, Slow Dawning, was not science fiction and was written under the pseudonym of Jane Howes. It was her novella “In Hiding,” published in the November, 1948, issue of Astounding magazine, that proved to be her most popular story. It told of young orphan Timothy Paul, who is interviewed by a psychiatrist, Dr. Welles. The doctor comes to realize that the youngster has an adult intellect, and he becomes the boy’s confidant. He deduces that Tim’s abilities will continue to grow, to the point where other adults will seem as children to him. Eventually, Welles finds that Tim’s parents had been exposed to radiation from an atomic blast shortly before he was born. The radiation later killed them, but apparently caused a mutation in the youngster, boosting all of his abilities. Tim worries that he may become a lonely adult but Welles suggests that the same nuclear accident may have brought about similar abilities in other children.
Shiras continued Tim’s saga in other stories, also published in Astounding, in “Opening Doors,” “New Foundations,” “Problems,” and “Children of the Atom,” all of which she would bring together in book form as Children of the Atom, published by Gnome Press. Gnome was a small press founded in 1948 to produce science-fiction books. Until then, SF was primarily a magazine literature. Gnome brought out work by Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, C. L. Moore and Isaac Asimov, along with the Conan the Barbarian stories of Robert C. Howard, among others, long before the larger commercial publishers took SF or fantasy seriously.
The unfolding stories that made up Children of the Atom chronicle Tim’s discovery of other children whose intellects and abilities had mutated like his own. These mutations came as the result of an accidental explosion in an atomic plant that took place in 1958—the rest of the stories in the book are set after that year. Although the children find allies like Dr. Welles, other adults who get hints of how the children have jumped ahead in evolution fear that the children are superior beings whose desire is to dominate humanity. The leader of the persecutors in the final story is a religious zealot: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” he quotes. Eventually, the young people work out an accommodation with the rest of the human race.
The theme of mutants among us has found wide currency in SF: A. E. van Vogt mined similar material in Slan (1946), Theodore Sturgeon in More than Human (1953), and John Wyndham in The Chrysalids (1953). This theme continues today in the comic book and movie stories of the X-Men.
Shiras continued writing stories through the 1960’s. She died in 1990.