David Hatcher Childress

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David Hatcher Childress (born June 1, 1957) is an American author and the founder of Adventures Unlimited Press, a publishing house started in 1984 that focuses on unusual topics such as ancient mysteries, unexplained phenomena, pseudohistory, and historical revisionism. His own writing centers on UFOs, secret societies, suppressed technologies, cryptozoology, and conspiracy theories. He describes himself as a rogue archaeologist, noting that he does not have a formal archaeology degree.

Childress was born in France to American parents and raised in Colorado and Montana. He studied archaeology at the University of Montana–Missoula but left in 1976 at age 19 to travel and explore. After years spent in Asia and Africa, he moved in 1983 to Stelle, Illinois, influenced by the writings of New Age author Richard Kieninger. He chronicled his explorations in the Lost Cities and Ancient Mysteries series, with his first book, A Hitchhiker's Guide to Africa and Arabia, published in 1983.

In 1984 Childress started Adventures Unlimited Press in Kempton, Illinois as a sole proprietorship. The company published his works and those of other authors, presenting fringe theories about ancient civilizations, cryptozoology, and little-known technologies. In 1992 he founded the World Explorers Club, which sometimes runs tours to places he writes about, and publishes World Explorer magazine.

Scholars have criticized some of Childress’s ideas as pseudoscience. For example, geographer Patrick D. Nunn has noted his support for controversial claims such as the lost continent Mu and megaliths on Pacific islands said to be built by levitation. Historian Charles E. Orser has criticized his writings for promoting racialized or sensational depictions of Atlantis and similar myths, including claims about an Atlantean league building sites in South America.

Over the years, Adventures Unlimited Press has published nearly 200 books, including many translations, and Childress himself has authored or co-authored more than a dozen. His influences include Erich von Däniken, Thor Heyerdahl, and Charles Berlitz.