George E. Sweet; Oilman, Author of Books on Petroleum

George Elliott Sweet, 92, author and oilman who wrote about the petroleum industry. A native of Denver who was educated at the University of Oklahoma, he founded Sweet Geophysical Co. in Malibu in 1940. The firm located several major oil deposits, including the Chunchulla and Citronelle fields in Alabama. As a writer, Sweet published eight books, including “The History of Geophysical Prospecting” in two volumes, “Gentleman in Oil” and “The Petroleum Saga.” Sweet also helped found Southern California’s Shakespeare Authorship Roundtable, and was a staunch proponent of the theory that Shakespeare’s plays and poems were actually written by Queen Elizabeth. He set out the theory in his book “Shake-speare: The Mystery.” On Thursday in Santa Monica.