Homer Lea (November 17, 1876 – November 1, 1912) was an American adventurer, author and geopolitical strategist. He is today best known for his involvement with Chinese reform and revolutionary movements in the early twentieth century and as a close advisor to Dr. Sun Yat-sen during the 1911 Chinese Republican revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty, and for his writings about China, Germany, England, Japan, the Pacific and geopolitics. Homer Lea had no children, and neither did his two sisters. His closest relative and first cousin was Malcolm Lea and Malcolm's son, Ralph Lea. Malcolm Lea visited with Homer Lea in Los Angeles where Homer proudly gave him signed copies of his works. Malcolm and Ralph Lea returned to Los Angeles to visit with Homer's sisters, Ermal and Hersa through the 1930s and for Lea family reunions. Early life Homer Lea was born in Denver, Colorado, to Alfred E. (1845–1909) and Hersa A. (1846–1879; née Coberly) Lea. He had two younger sisters, Ermal and Hersa. Alfred, a Tennessee native, had a successful real estate, abstract and brokerage business in Boulder, Colorado. Homer's mother Hersa was the widow of murdered abolitionist and soldier Captain Silas Soule (1838-1865). After Alfred's wife Hersa died from an unexpected illness in 1879, he married Emma R. Wilson in 1890 and moved his family to Los Angeles, California in 1893-94 after visiting the Lea family in New Mexico. Lea came from an early pioneering family. His grandfather, Dr. Pleasant John Graves Lea (1807-1862), helped establish the town of Cleveland, Tennessee, in 1837, before moving his family to Jackson County, Missouri, in the late 1840s in search of new opportunities. He is the namesake for Lee's Summit, Missouri. The town was named after him in 1868 when the Missouri Pacific Railroad established a station near his property, which was the highest point of its St. Louis-Omaha line, but misspelled his name. In 1884, Alfred Lea was involved in the establishment of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and the following year helped his brother Joseph establish the town of Roswell, New Mexico, by surveying and drawing the first plat of the Roswell town site. In 1917, Joseph C. Lea (1841-1905), Alfred's brother, became the namesake for Lea County, New Mexico. Lea was born seemingly healthy, but after suffering a drop as a baby, he became a hunchback, eventually standing five feet in height and weighing approximately 100 pounds. Lea's ancestors