Leslie Charteris (born Leslie Charles Bowyer Yin; 1907–1993) was a British-American writer best known for his series on stories featuring Simon Templar, also known as The Saint.^[1] Born in Singapore to a Chinese father, Suat Yin Chwan, and his English wife, Lydia (née Bowyer), Charteris travelled extensively with his family until beginning his education in England in 1919.^[2][3] In 1925 he enrolled at King's College, Cambridge, but left after a year in order to become a writer;^[4] to support himself, he worked as a goldminer, bartender, professional bridge player and temporary policeman. In October 1926 he changed his name by deed poll to Leslie Charles Bowyer Charteris-Ian, and professionally used the shorter version, Leslie Charteris.^[1]

Charteris's first five novels were published by Ward Lock & Co; he also had a story The Red River published in their Windsor Magazine in May 1927. The first novel, X Esquire, which he later described as "an appallingly bad book", was published in 1927;^[5] his second novel—The White Rider, published in 1928—is "overwritten and poorly constructed", according to his biographer Joan DelFattore.^[5] In his third novel, Meet the Tiger (1928), he introduced the character of Simon Templar, a debonair gentleman crook who goes by the nom de guerre, The Saint.^[6]

Charteris continued writing Saint books and the series gained in popularity because of its "mix of light humour, sophisticated settings, and story-line emphasising the role of a crusader tackling the forces of evil", which had "special appeal in the depression".^[1] Charteris moved to the United States in 1932 and soon began writing screenplays, the first of which resulted in Midnight Club, released in 1933.^[7][8]

In the June 1954 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Charteris published Fish Story.^[9] According to the editors, it was written during (or inspired by) a leisure trip to Florida.

Charteris also worked on three books of non-fiction and an introduction to the 1980 re-issue of The Saint Meets the Tiger. The works consisted of a translation from Spanish to English of the autobiography of the bullfighter Juan Belmonte, a language guide to Spanish, and a guide to Paleneo, a wordless, pictorial sign language invented by Charteris.^[10] He died in Windsor, Berkshire, in April 1993.^[1]

The books of Leslie Charteris

Title[12][13][14]	Year of first publication	First edition publisher	Simon Templar book?	Format	Ref.
X Esquire	1927	Ward Lock & Co, London	N	Novel	[15]
The White Rider	1928	Ward Lock & Co, London	N	Novel	[16]
Meet the Tiger	1928	Ward Lock & Co, London	Y	Novel	[17]
The Bandit	1929	Ward Lock & Co, London	N	Novel	[18]
Daredevil	1929	Ward Lock & Co, London	N[19]	Novel	[20]
Enter the Saint	1930	Hodder & Stoughton, London	Y	Short story collection	[21]
The Last Hero	1930	Hodder & Stoughton, London	Y	Novel	[22]
Knight Templar	1930	Hodder & Stoughton, London	Y	Novel	[23]
Featuring the Saint	1931	Hodder & Stoughton, London	Y	Novellas	[24]
Alias the Saint	1931	Hodder & Stoughton, London	Y	Novellas	[25]
She Was a Lady	1931	Hodder & Stoughton, London	Y	Novel	[26]
The Holy Terror	1932	Hodder & Stoughton, London	Y	Novellas	[27]
Getaway	1932	Hodder & Stoughton, London	Y	Novel	[28]
Once More the Saint	1933	Hodder & Stoughton, London	Y	Novellas	[29]
The Brighter Buccaneer	1933	Hodder & Stoughton, London	Y	Short story collection	[30]
The Misfortunes of Mr. Teal	1934	Hodder & Stoughton, London	Y	Novellas	[31]
Boodle	1934	Hodder & Stoughton, London	Y	Short story collection	[32]
The Saint Goes On	1934	Hodder & Stoughton, London	Y	Novellas	[33]
The Saint in New York	1935	Hodder & Stoughton, London	Y	Novel	[34]
Saint Overboard	1936	Hodder & Stoughton, London	Y	Novel	[35]
The Ace of Knaves	1937	Hodder & Stoughton, London	Y	Novellas	[36]
Thieves' Picnic	1937	Hodder & Stoughton, London	Y	Novel	[37]
Prelude for War	1938	Hodder & Stoughton, London	Y	Novel	[38]
Follow the Saint	1938	Doubleday, Garden City, NY	Y	Novellas	[39]
The Happy Highwayman	1939	Hodder & Stoughton, London	Y	Short story collection	[40]
The Saint in Miami	1940	Doubleday, Garden City, NY	Y	Novel	[41]
The Saint Goes West	1942	Hodder & Stoughton, London	Y	Novellas	[42]
The Saint Steps In	1942	Doubleday, Garden City, NY	Y	Novel	[43]
The Saint on Guard	1944	Doubleday, Garden City, NY	Y	Novellas	[44]
Lady on a Train	1945	Shaw Press, Los Angeles, CA	N	Novelisation[a]	[8]
The Saint Sees it Through	1946	Doubleday, Garden City, NY	Y	Novel	[45]
Call for the Saint	1948	Hodder & Stoughton, London	Y	Novellas	[46]
Saint Errant	1948	Doubleday, Garden City, NY	Y	Short story collection	[47]
The Saint in Europe	1953	Doubleday, Garden City, NY	Y	Short story collection	[48]
The Saint on the Spanish Main	1955	Doubleday, Garden City, NY	Y	Short story collection	[49]
The Saint Around the World	1956	Doubleday, Garden City, NY	Y	Short story collection	[50]
Thanks to the Saint	1957	Doubleday, Garden City, NY	Y	Short story collection	[51]
Señor Saint	1958	Doubleday, Garden City, NY	Y	Short story collection	[52]
The Saint to the Rescue	1959	Doubleday, Garden City, NY	Y	Short story collection	[53]
Trust the Saint	1962	Doubleday, Garden City, NY	Y	Short story collection	[54]
The Saint in the Sun	1963	Doubleday, Garden City, NY	Y	Short story collection	[55]
Vendetta for the Saint[b]	1964	Doubleday, Garden City, NY	Y	Novel	[57]
The Saint in Pursuit[c]	1970	Doubleday, Garden City, NY	Y	Novel	[59]
The Saint and the People Importers[d]	1970	Doubleday, Garden City, NY	Y	Novel	[61]

Notes

References

• Works by Leslie Charteris at Open Library