Gabriel Mckee
Author • Librarian • Cultural Historian
The Saucerian
UFOs, Men in Black, and the Unbelievable Life of Gray Barker
Available April 22, 2025 from MIT Press
- “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 Techgnosis and 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, Technology