Symmes Chadwick Oliver (30 March 1928 – 9 August 1993) was an American anthropologist and science fiction and Western writer. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father was a surgeon and his mother a nurse. When he was young he suffered from rheumatic fever and as a result spent some time as an invalid, a time during which he became interested in science fiction. However he spent most of his life in Austin, Texas where he was twice chairman of the Department of Anthropology of the University of Texas. He was also one of the founders of the Turkey City Writer's Workshop. He first attended the University in 1946 as a student and, apart from a brief sojourn to UCLA to obtain his PhD, he remained there in some capacity until his death, 47 years later. He first had a story published in 1950. His science fiction is generally classified as anthropological science fiction because he often used insights from his professional work to inform his fictional writing.