Office Copying Technology in the Flying Saucer Subculture: Gray Barker’s Saucerian Books

Abstract

Gray Barker founded one of the first flying saucer fanzines, The Saucerian, in 1953. Over the following three decades, Barker operated one of the only publishers specializing in UFO books, often issuing works too unusual or eccentric for more mainstream presses. The path of Barker’s career as a publisher can be traced through a succession of printing techniques, varying with the expansion and contraction of his audience network. Throughout his career, Barker used office copying technology to produce his publications on a small scale for distribution to his core audience. This paper details the various printing and marketing methods used by Barker and his press in order to demonstrate the impact of print technology on subcultural communication and the growth of paranormal and conspiracist narratives in the pre-internet era.