A contactee canon: Gray Barker's Saucerian Books

Abstract

Gray Barker (1925-1984) was a prominent figure in flying saucer and New Age publishing for over three decades, beginning in 1953 with the first issue of his flying saucer fanzine The Saucerian. By the end of the 1950s, he had launched a publishing imprint that brought out some of the strangest UFO-related books of the era, with a particular emphasis on flying saucer contactees. Barker also played a key role in nurturing fringe ideas that grew up around the saucer mystery, including the Mothman, the Philadelphia Experiment, and the Men in Black. Barker’s publishing imprint—first known as Saucerian Publications and later renamed New Age Books—became a platform for those whose stories were too unusual, implausible, or crudely written for more mainstream publishers. Cheaply produced and published in small editions, Saucerian’s books were marketed to the small core of true believers in the saucer mystery. This chapter explores Barker’s career as a publisher, emphasizing his role in bringing to light contactee narratives and other outré works as well as his central role in the development of 20th-century myths and the permeation of paranormal ideas into popular culture.