Burl Barer

Burl Barer (born 1947, Walla Walla, Washington) is an American author and literary historian. He is best known for his fiction and non-fiction writings about the character Simon Templar, also known as "The Saint".

Career

"The Saint"

Barer's best-known work is "The Saint: A Complete History in Print, Radio, Television, and Film " which was first published in 1992 and republished in 2003. He received a 1994 Edgar Award for this book, which is a chronological examination of The Saint in all media.

Considered a leading expert on Simon Templar and the work of the character's creator, Leslie Charteris, Barer has also written two novels, both published in 1997, based upon the character. The first was a novelization of the screenplay for the 1997 film adaptation of "The Saint" starring Val Kilmer, although the film itself was only loosely based upon Charteris' creation. This was followed by "Capture the Saint", which was published by The Saint Club (an organization founded by Charteris) to mark the 70th anniversary of the character's first appearance, in "Meet - The Tiger!". It is the most recent Saint story to have been published as of 2006.

True crime

Barer is also a prolific author of true crime books and was praised by Pulitzer Prize nominee Jack Olsen for "writing true crime at its best." [ [http://adoraburl.typepad.com/burl_barer/2006/10/jack_olsen_reme.html Jack Olsen Remembered] ]

Barer is also known for using real people in his fiction books, and using the names of fiction characters from his novels as "replacement names" in his true crime books for people who don't want their real names used. Barer appears in his own true crime book, "Body Count", as Jeff Reynolds, the name of his fictional protagonist in his novel "Headlock". Chet Rogers, Travis Webb, and Donna McCooke are other real people who appear in both his works of fiction and his non-fiction books. Rogers and Webb are both journalists, and McCooke is a prominent health care professional in the UK. Rogers appears as a newsman in Barer's novelization of "The Saint", and McCooke appears as a love interest for a jet pilot in the novelization of "Stealth", published only in Japan.

Radio

Before becoming an author, Barer was a prominent radio personality in the Pacific Northwest. He also garnered awards in commercial writing and production. He is the uncle of authors Lee Goldberg and Tod Goldberg. His nieces, Linda Woods and Karen Dinino, are also well known writers. A compilation by Burl Barer, "Selections from the Holy Qur'án: Translations and Emendations by Shoghi Effendi", appeared as an appendix in James Heggie's "Bahá'í References to Judaism, Christianity and Islam". [Oxford: George Ronald, 1986] It was Barer's first contribution to an internationally distributed reference work. [see item 11, [http://bahai-library.com/uhj/aspects.teachings.html MEMORANDUM - Questions about aspects of the Bahá'í Teachings] From: Research Department To: The Universal House of Justice Date: 6 August 1997]

In 2007, Barer became a regular participant on the long running Internet radio program, "Outlaw Radio", hosted by Matt Alan. In March 2008, Barer teamed with attorney Don Woldman for their own show, with a focus on crime.

According to the Internet Movie Database, Barer is also credited with a small acting role in the 1991 film, "The Last Ride". [http://imdb.com/name/nm/]

Personal life

Barer is a Bahá'í by religion. [ [http://adoraburl.typepad.com/burl_barer/2005/12/electric_menora.html Burl Barer, Brilliant Author] author's blog] and has two grown children.

References