Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Oliver was born near Corpus Christi, Texas on July 7, 1908. 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 moved to California. He began the study of Sanskrit, using Max Müller''s handbooks and Monier Williams'' grammar, later finding a Hindu missionary to tutor him. As an adolescent, he found amusement in going to watch evangelists "pitch the woo at the simple-minded", attending performances of Aimee Semple McPherson and Katherine Tingley. He entered Pomona College in Claremont, California, when he was sixteen. In 1930, Oliver married Grace Needham. He began attending 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 the degree of Philosophiae Doctor in 1940. That same year, the University published his Ph.D.