The Saucerian

The strange, but true biography of the colorful founder of Saucerian Books, a central purveyor and promoter of flying saucer and conspiracist knowledge in the mid-twentieth century.

Gray Barker (1925–1984) was an eccentric literary outsider, filled with ideas that were out of step with the world. An author and unreliable narrator of implausible stories, Barker founded and operated Saucerian Books, an independent publisher of books about flying saucers and other ideas at the fringes of popular discourse. In The Saucerian, Gabriel Mckee tells the fascinating story of Barker’s West Virginia–based press, the unique corpus of materials it published, and how office-copying and self-publishing techniques influenced the spread of paranormal beliefs and conspiratorial worldviews over the last century. Following the development of UFO subculture, Mckee explores the life and career of a larger-than-life hoaxer and originator of pseudoscientific ideas.

Ever an entertainer, Barker established his reputation with one of the first flying saucer fanzines, The Saucerian, and with his first book, the conspiratorial and sensationalistic They Knew Too Much about Flying Saucers. By the close of the 1950s, he had established a publishing imprint that brought out some of the strangest UFO-related books of the era, with a particular emphasis on flying saucer contactees. Saucerian Books became a platform for those whose stories were too unusual, implausible, or crudely written for more mainstream publishers. Though Barker himself was a skeptic, he viewed the world of occult believers as a source of ongoing entertainment. He also may have used the perceived eccentricity of flying saucer research, or “ufology,” to obscure his homosexuality from his small-town neighbors. From his place on the fringes of midcentury American culture, Barker left an unmatched legacy in conspiratorial concepts that have become prominent pop-cultural folklore, including the Men in Black, the Mothman, and the Philadelphia Experiment. As a mastermind behind the fantastical, Barker’s promotional efforts were the precursor to contemporary conspiracism.Introduction: The Unidentified
1 “Heckling the Performer in Derision”: Gray Barker before Flying Saucers
2 Flying Saucers before Gray Barker
3 “The Skies Seethe with Mystery”: The Saucerian
4 “Tomorrow we shall again have our head in the stars”: 1954–1955
5 Knowing Too Much: 1956–1957
6 Chasing the Flying Saucers: 1957–1959
7 “A Very Profitable Wave”: The Beginning of Saucerian Books
8 “A Fairly Good Hack Writing Style”: Decline and Resurrection, 1962–1965
9 The Saucer Boom: The Paranormal As Business, 1966–1968
10 “What Else Have You Got Besides Flying Saucers?” Saucerian Books After Condon, 1969–1970
11 “Thoroughly Dedicated to Promoting UFO Crackpottery”: Barker in the 1970s
12 “Deep Peace and Drowsiness”: New Age Books and Barker’s Final Years, 1982–1984
Conclusion: Strange Things
Notes
Bibliography
Index“A welcome biography of one of the great American eccentrics that explores how the flying saucer craze transformed from fringe fad to key underlying beliefs and fears of contemporary US society. A marvelous work, as entertaining as it is enlightening.”
—Jack Womack, author of Ambient and Flying Saucers Are Real!

“Written with a folklorist’s attention to narrative power, a historian’s attention to subculture, and an archivist’s attention to media, The Saucerian is a sharp and illuminating jewel of ufology studies.”
—Erik Davis, author of High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies

“An impeccably sourced, deeply affecting portrait of the man behind many of the “UFO” tropes that are deeply embedded in American popular culture—a man whose story and contributions have been overlooked for too long.”
—Aaron Gulyas, author of Extraterrestrials and the American Zeitgeist; host of the podcast The Saucer Life

“The Saucerian offers a crucial, funny, and engaging theoretical lens through which to understand the UFO phenomenon, making it essential reading for anyone seriously interested in this fascinating and mysterious topic.”
—Diana Walsh Pasulka, author of Encounters: Experiences with Nonhuman Intelligence and American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, TechnologyGabriel Mckee is Librarian for Collections and Services at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. He is a coeditor of Theology and the DC Universe, and his prior works include The Gospel According to Science Fiction, Pink Beams of Light from the God in the Gutter, and Evermore: The Persistence of Poe.