Leslie Gordon Barnard (1890-1961)

Author, Editor
Born 1890, Montréal, Québec, Canada
Died October 28, 1961, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Leslie Gordon Barnard was a prolific author of short stories from the pulp days of 1920 to the era of men's magazines of the early 1960s. He was born in 1890 in Montréal, Canada, and began writing at an early age. Barnard served as an officer in the Canadian military during World War I and was editor of The War Pictorial: The Leading Pictorial Souvenir of the Great War (three volumes, Montreal: Dodd-Simpson Press, 1914-1915). He had stories in leading Canadian magazines, including Canadian Home Journal, The Canadian Magazine, Family Herald, MacLean's, and National Home Monthly. The FictionMags Index lists scores more published in Adventure, The American Magazine, Argosy All-Story Weekly, Detective Story Magazine, Manhunt, Munsey's, Street & Smith's Detective Story Magazine, Street & Smith's Western Story Magazine, Suspense, 20-Story Magazine, Weird Tales, and one of my favorite magazine titles, The Modern Priscilla, among others. His character Mr. Philibus ran in Detective Fiction Weekly and Detective Story Magazine from 1928 to 1935. 

Barnard was the author of three books, One Generation Away (1931), Jancis (1935), and So Near is Grandeur (1945). His stories were adapted to television on 1958 General Electric Theater ("At Miss Minner's," 1958) and The Loretta Young Show ("Woodlot," 1961). In addition, he served as president of the Canadian Authors Association and of the Montréal branch of the international PEN Club. Leslie Gordon Barnard died on October 28, 1961, in Toronto and was buried at Mount Royal Cemetery in Montréal.

Leslie Gordon Barnard's Story in Weird Tales

"The Man in the Taxi" (Nov. 1937)

Further Reading

"Authorship Joys and Sorrows Told," Montréal Gazette, October 29, 1930, page 6, here.

Obituary, New York Times, October 31, 1961.

Leslie Gordon Barnard was editor of the three-volume War Pictorial published during the Great War.

In happier times, he contributed to pulp magazines. Cover by John A. Coughlin (1885-1943).

Barnard's career was long and fruitful. He continued having his stories published into the digest era and even in foreign-language editions.

His stories were also published in British magazines, such as The Strand.

Text copyright 2016, 2023 Terence E. Hanley