VALLISNERIA MADNESS, by Ralph Milne FarleyINTRODUCTION
Roger Sherman Hoar (1887–1963) was an American state senator and assistant Attorney General, for the state of Massachusetts. He also wrote pulp fiction under the pseudonym “Ralph Milne Farley.” Hoar was the product of a New England family—the son of Sherman Hoar, grandson of former US Attorney General Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, great-grandson of Samuel Hoar, and great-great grandson of American founding father Roger Sherman, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Born in Waltham, Massachusetts, Hoar attended Phillips Exeter Academy. He then received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 1909 and his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1911. During World War I, he served in the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps.
