Revilo P. Oliver

Revilo Pendleton Oliver was born in 1908 near Corpus Christi, Texas. He attended two years of high school in Illinois. Disliking the severe winters, and once requiring hospitalization "for one of the first mastoidectomies performed as more than a daring experiment", he relocated to California, where he studied Sanskrit. He used Max Müller's handbooks and Monier Williams' grammar, later finding a Hindu missionary to tutor him.[2]

As an adolescent, he found amusement in watching evangelists "pitch the woo at the simple-minded", attending performances of Aimee Semple McPherson and Katherine Tingley.[2] He entered Pomona College in Claremont, California, when he was sixteen.[3]

In 1930, Oliver married Grace Needham. He returned to Illinois, where he attended the University of Illinois and studied under William Abbott Oldfather. His first book was an annotated translation, from the Sanskrit, of Mricchakatika (The Little Clay Cart), published by the University of Illinois in 1938. He received his PhD in 1940.[3] That same year, the University published his Ph.D. thesis: Niccolò Perotti's Translations of the Enchiridion, which was republished in 1954 as Niccolo Perotti's Version of the Enchiridion of Epictetus.[4]

Oliver began teaching graduate classes. For a number of years he also gave graduate courses in the Renaissance, teaching in the Departments of Spanish and Italian.[3]

During World War II Oliver said that he worked at an unnamed War Department agency from 1942 until the autumn of 1945, writing, "By good luck, I found myself in charge of a rapidly expanding department, and ...responsible for the work of c. 175 persons."[3]

Oliver left Washington, D.C. in 1945. He returned to the University of Illinois as an Assistant Professor, became an Associate Professor in 1947, and Professor in 1953.[5] He published little in the academic press but later became known for politically conservative articles expressing anti-Semitism and white nationalism.

In November 1955, William F. Buckley, a graduate of Yale, founded the National Review, a magazine to express a conservative viewpoint.[6] Buckley would later claim that he worked to increase conservatism's respectability, prohibiting publication by anti-Semites or extremists such as Oliver, but he employed Oliver, his "close friend", as a book reviewer for the National Review for many years before finally breaking with him over his 1964 article on the Kennedy assassination.[7]

In 1958, Oliver joined Robert W. Welch, Jr. as one of the founding members of the conservative, anti-Communist John Birch Society.[8] Oliver wrote frequently for the Birch Society magazine American Opinion. In 1962, Buckley repudiated Welch and the "Birchers", saying they were "far removed from common sense" and urging the GOP to purge itself of Welch's influence.[9]

Oliver attracted attention from his university and the media by his two-part article called "Marxmanship in Dallas", published in February 1964 after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He said that Lee Harvey Oswald had carried out the murder as part of a Communist conspiracy; and that the Communists wanted to kill Kennedy, whom Oliver described as a puppet who had outlived his usefulness.[10] His comments were reported by the New York Times. In March 1964, the Los Angeles Times reported that Oliver had been reprimanded by the University of Illinois' Board of Trustees for his remarks, but was allowed to keep his position.[11] Oliver testified in the fall of that year before the Warren Commission.[1]

In the 1960s, Oliver broke with American conservatism.[7] Having become convinced that Welch had either tricked him or sold out to Zionist interests, he objected to what he called "the Birch hoax." He was "forced to resign" from the Society on 30 July 1966.[12][8] Oliver later claimed in 1981 to have discovered that Welch "was merely the nominal head of the Birch business, which he operated under the supervision of a committee of Jews."[8]

Oliver subsequently became involved with Willis Carto's National Youth Alliance (NYA).[8] The National Alliance website claims that Oliver worked with William Luther Pierce in the early years of the NYA.[13] Pierce later wrote The Turner Diaries, a 1978 novel about a race war and overthrow of the United States government.[14]

In 1978, Oliver became an editorial adviser for the Institute for Historical Review, an organization devoted primarily to Holocaust denial.[8] He was also a regular contributor to Liberty Bell magazine but received no mainstream notice.

Oliver retired in 1977.[15] In 1994, suffering from leukemia and severe emphysema, he committed suicide at the age of 86 in Urbana, Illinois. His estate arranged to publish several works posthumously through Historical Review Press and Liberty Bell, as well as to attend to the needs of his wife Grace in her declining years.

• The Little Clay Cart. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1938.
• Niccolò Perotti's Translations of the Enchiridion. University of Illinois Press, 1940.
• History and Biology. Griff Press, 1963.
• All America Must Know the Terror that Is Upon Us. Bakersfield: Conservative Viewpoint, 1966.
  • Liberty Bell Publications, 1975.
• Conspiracy or Degeneracy?. Power Products, 1967.
• Christianity and the Survival of the West. Sterling, VA: Sterling Enterprises, 1973.
  • Cape Canaveral: Howard Allen, 1978. 78 pages. ISBN 9780914576129 Reprint of 1973 edition with new postscript.
• The Jews Love Christianity. Liberty Bell Publications, 1980. Internet Archive. Published under pseudonym “Ralph Perrier”.
• America's Decline: The Education of a Conservative. London: Londinium Press, 1981.
  • Historical Review Press, 1983. ISBN 0906879655 Internet Archive.
• The Enemy of Our Enemies. Liberty Bell Publications, 1981.
• "Populism" and "Elitism". Liberty Bell Publications, 1982. 101 pages. ISBN 9780942094015
• Christianity Today: Four Articles. Liberty Bell Publications, 1987. 37 pages. OCLC 166141772
• The Yellow Peril. Liberty Bell Publications, 1983. ISBN 0942094115 Internet Archive.

• The Origins of Christianity. Historical Review Press, 1994.
• Reflections on the Christ Myth. Historical Review Press, 1994.
• The Origins of Christianity. Historical Review Press, 2001.
• The Jewish Strategy. Palladian Books, 2002. Internet Archive (Audio).
• Against the Grain. Liberty Bell Publications, 2004.

• William F. Friedman. Letter: “Dear Dr. Oliver”. 23 June 1952. Internet Archive. — Reply To Mr. Oliver's letter of 11 June 1952 to Mr Friedman Giving Details on two manuscripts Mr. Friedman is interested in obtaining for the AFSA Library.
• John Birch Society. Letter: “To Members of the Council of the John Birch Society”. 14 August 1966. — Revilo’s resignation letter to the John Birch Society.

• The Meaning of Americanism (18 March 1960) listen
• They Shall Not Go Unpunished (1961) listen
• Informal talk about Communism (June 1961) listen
• On Communism (June 1961) listen
• The Ends of Socialism (23 April 1963) listen
• The Mad Marxmen (April 1964) listen
• Can 'Liberals' be Educated? (10 September 1965) listen
• Self Preservation (1966) listen
• Conspiracy or Degeneracy? (2 July 1966) listen
• The Road Ahead (14 April 1967) listen
• What We Owe Our Parasites (9 June 1968) listen
• Race and Revolution (10 August 1968) listen

• Strom, Kevin Alfred. “About: Biographical Note.” revilo-oliver.com