A Treasury of Templars

The Saint in Miami, by Leslie Charteris (Avon, 1958).
Cover illustration by David Stone.

Is it mere coincidence that Halloween, which so often celebrates haunting and horrific characters, should be followed by All Saints’ Day, honoring “saints both canonized and unknown”? This Christian solemnity began working its way onto the liturgical calendar in the 9th century A.D., and was pegged to November 1 through the efforts of Pope Gregory III in the early 8th century.

But, of course, we have our own, non-religious interpretation of what sort of saint is really deserving of praise today.

That’s right, we’re talking about Simon Templar, alias “The Saint,” a Robin Hood-like protagonist who was introduced by British author Leslie Charteris in his 1928 novel, Meet the Tiger. Templar went on to star in three dozen more novels and short-story collections by Charteris until 1963. After that, other writers either collaborated with Charteris on Saint works, or—following the author’s death in 1993—penned Saint tales on their own. In addition, the hero featured in big-screen films as well as TV movies, and was portrayed by actor Roger Moore in a 1962-1969 ITV-TV spy thriller series titled simply The Saint. (A subsequent show, Return of the Saint, was broadcast from 1978 until 1972 and found Ian Ogilvy in the lead role.)

Below you will find covers from half a dozen Saint titles published during the 1950s and ’60s. We don’t have identifications of all the artists responsible for these. However, we can tell you that Charles Binger created the front for The Saint to the Rescue (Permabooks, 1961), George Ziel was responsible for Concerning the Saint (Avon, 1958), and Raymond Johnson produced the artwork for the edition shown here of The Saint Steps In (Avon, 1954).

Many more Saint paperback fronts can be enjoyed here.

Because I Needed a Charteris Fix …

The Saint Sees It Through, by Leslie Charteris (Avon, 1954). Originally released in hardcover back in 1946, this was the 26th novel by British-Chinese author Charteris to star his Robin Hood-like troubleshooter, Simon Templar, aka “The Saint.”

Cover painting by George Ziel.

A Day to Give Thanks … in Some Way

Thanks to the Saint, by Leslie Charteris (Pocket, 1959). Illustration by Darrel Greene. You’ll find another Thanksgiving-appropriate paperback cover here.

Saints Be Praised

Had it not been for this post in a blog kept by graphic designer David Drummond, the founder of Quebec-based Salamander Hill Design, I might not have noticed that handsome new editions of Leslie Charteris’ classic Simon Templar (aka “The Saint”) novels are now being released by Thomas & Mercer, an Amazon paperback imprint. Drummond, of course, was responsible for the fronts of the University of Chicago Press’ Richard Stark reprints of a few years ago, so you know his covers for these Saint stories are worth collecting.

I don’t see a listing on the Amazon Web site for Charteris’ first, 1928 Saint outing, Meet the Tiger. However, his second one, Enter the Saint (1930), can be had in paperback here, with many additional titles carrying Drummond fronts to be found here.

Better yet, order any or all of these reprints from your nearest independent bookstore.

Señor Saint, by Leslie Charteris

This isn’t the book cover I had planned to feature today. I was going to focus on something darker, more suggestive of danger, something crisp with fright. But because the weather has been so incredibly beautiful here in the Pacific Northwest for the last couple of weeks, I was moved instead to look for something more tropical in nature.

Señor Saint is a collection of four short stories by Leslie Charteris (born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin), the half-Chinese, half-English author who, in 1928, introduced the character of Simon Templar in Meet--The Tiger! Templar, who is also known as The Saint (a cognomen derived from the initials of his name), was a thief, adventurer, amateur sleuth, and “Robin Hood of modern crime.” Charteris wrote and saw published almost three dozen Saint books--novels and short-story collections--and witnessed his protagonist portrayed in both movies and on the radio (with Vincent Price giving his voice to the character for four years, on three networks), before television finally took an interest. In 1962, Roger Moore began starring in The Saint, a British mystery/spy series that made handsome Simon Templar almost as famous on the small screen as James Bond was in movie theaters. That role as Templar is now considered to have been valuable training for Moore’s subsequent portrayal of Agent 007 in seven big-action films.

According to Wikipedia, “Charteris wrote 14 novels between 1928 and 1971 (the last two co-written), 34 novellas, and 95 short stories featuring Simon Templar.” Señor Saint falls approximately in the middle of the author’s production. This collection was first published in hardcover by The Crime Club in 1958; a year later, Hodder and Stoughton finally made it available to UK readers. The book contains four yarns--“The Pearls of Peace,” “The Revolution Racket,” “The Romantic Matron,” and “The Golden Frog”--all of which are set in Latin America (Baja California, Mexico City, Havana, and Panama) and have in one way or another to do with swindles. An online review describes the stories as “typical, charming and amusing little thrillers, if nothing very special.” Nonetheless, all four were eventually adapted as episodes of The Saint. (Synopses of those TV installments, and more, can be found here.) The Saintly Bible, an expansive and authoritative Web site devoted to Charteris and Templar, recalls that the author was on record as saying that “The Pearls of Peace” “was his favorite Saint story.” (Yet, “he chose to include ‘The Arrow of God’ when asked for his ‘best’ work for the 1955 book, My Best Murder Story, edited by David Cooke.”)

The Señor Saint cover featured at the top of this post comes from the 1960 Pocket Books edition. Its artwork suggests leisure, languidness, and lust--all in colors familiar from places where one has to think twice before putting on a jacket to go to work. The illustration is credited to James Hill. A Canadian artist born in 1930, Hill grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, later taught at the Ontario College of Art, and reportedly created covers “for more than 200 paperback novels”; yet he is probably best remembered for artwork he did on assignment for Maclean’s, The Saturday Evening Post, and other magazines. Described as “a versatile stylist,” Hill was apparently a two-time recipient of gold medals from the New York Society of Illustrators, and executed a number of noteworthy portraits, including those of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Pope John Paul II. Hill is often described as “the dean of Canadian illustrators.” (Click here to see a selection of his magazine imagery.)

Beyond Señor Saint, Hill’s other book illustrations included the cover for the 1959 Dell paperback edition of Cop Killer (see above), one of 51 novels written by George Bagby (né Aaron Marc Stein) and featuring Inspector Schmidt, the New York City police department’s “sore-footed” chief of homicide.

James Hill is said to have died on February 3, 2004, “at his Toronto studio of heart problems at age 73.” If so, he outlived Leslie Charteris by 11 years.