Talking Weird #139 Gray Barker - The Saucerian with Gabriel Mckee

Gabriel Mckee is an author, librarian, curator, and researcher specializing in science fiction, religion, theology, bibliography/book history, and parahistoriography. His past work includes books on theology and science fiction, curating exhibitions on Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain, and working as part of the editorial team for Philip K. Dick's EXEGESIS. His most recent book is THE SAUCERIAN: UFOs, MEN IN BLACK, AND THE UNBELIEVABLE LIFE OF GRAY BARKER.

Visit Gabriel online at: https://gabrielmckee.com/

THE SAUCERIAN can be ordered from Amazon here, it will be released on April 22, 2025: https://www.amazon.com/Saucerian-UFOs-Black-Unbelievable-Barker/dp/0262049546/

Info about THE SAUCERIAN:

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.

Gabriel visits with Talking Weird to chat about the amazing life of Gray Barker, and his profound impact on the development of UFO belief.

This is an incredible episode, one filled with stories about early Ufology, that you do not want to miss!