# List of works by Leslie Charteris

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. 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. In 1925 he enrolled at King's College, Cambridge, but left after a year in order to become a writer; 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.
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; his second novel—The White Rider, published in 1928—is "overwritten and poorly constructed", according to his biographer Joan DelFattore. 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.
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". Charteris moved to the United States in 1932 and soon began writing screenplays, the first of which resulted in Midnight Club, released in 1933.
In the June 1954 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Charteris published Fish Story. 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. He died in Windsor, Berkshire, in April 1993.

## Novels and story collections

   "You might have seen something of the Indian, too, in the intent lines of his tanned reckless face; but that would have been an easy illusion. The same lines would have fitted as naturally into the picture of a conquistador ... or of d'Artagnan mocking the courts of France: they were only the heraldry of a character that would have been the same in any age or place, the timeless brand of the born buccaneer."
The books of Leslie Charteris :
| Title | Year of first publication | First edition publisher | Simon Templar book? | Format |
| X Esquire | 1927 | Ward Lock & Co, London | N | Novel |
| The White Rider | 1928 | Ward Lock & Co, London | N | Novel |
| Meet the Tiger | 1928 | Ward Lock & Co, London | Y | Novel |
| The Bandit | 1929 | Ward Lock & Co, London | N | Novel |
| Daredevil | 1929 | Ward Lock & Co, London | N | Novel |
| Enter the Saint | 1930 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Y | Short story collection |
| The Last Hero | 1930 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Y | Novel |
| Knight Templar | 1930 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Y | Novel |
| Featuring the Saint | 1931 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Y | Novellas |
| Alias the Saint | 1931 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Y | Novellas |
| She Was a Lady | 1931 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Y | Novel |
| The Holy Terror | 1932 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Y | Novellas |
| Getaway | 1932 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Y | Novel |
| Once More the Saint | 1933 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Y | Novellas |
| The Brighter Buccaneer | 1933 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Y | Short story collection |
| The Misfortunes of Mr. Teal | 1934 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Y | Novellas |
| Boodle | 1934 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Y | Short story collection |
| The Saint Goes On | 1934 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Y | Novellas |
| The Saint in New York | 1935 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Y | Novel |
| Saint Overboard | 1936 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Y | Novel |
| The Ace of Knaves | 1937 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Y | Novellas |
| Thieves' Picnic | 1937 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Y | Novel |
| Prelude for War | 1938 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Y | Novel |
| Follow the Saint | 1938 | Doubleday, Garden City, NY | Y | Novellas |
| The Happy Highwayman | 1939 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Y | Short story collection |
| The Saint in Miami | 1940 | Doubleday, Garden City, NY | Y | Novel |
| The Saint Goes West | 1942 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Y | Novellas |
| The Saint Steps In | 1942 | Doubleday, Garden City, NY | Y | Novel |
| The Saint on Guard | 1944 | Doubleday, Garden City, NY | Y | Novellas |
| Lady on a Train | 1945 | Shaw Press, Los Angeles, CA | N | Novelisation |
| The Saint Sees it Through | 1946 | Doubleday, Garden City, NY | Y | Novel |
| Call for the Saint | 1948 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Y | Novellas |
| Saint Errant | 1948 | Doubleday, Garden City, NY | Y | Short story collection |
| The Saint in Europe | 1953 | Doubleday, Garden City, NY | Y | Short story collection |
| The Saint on the Spanish Main | 1955 | Doubleday, Garden City, NY | Y | Short story collection |
| The Saint Around the World | 1956 | Doubleday, Garden City, NY | Y | Short story collection |
| Thanks to the Saint | 1957 | Doubleday, Garden City, NY | Y | Short story collection |
| Señor Saint | 1958 | Doubleday, Garden City, NY | Y | Short story collection |
| The Saint to the Rescue | 1959 | Doubleday, Garden City, NY | Y | Short story collection |
| Trust the Saint | 1962 | Doubleday, Garden City, NY | Y | Short story collection |
| The Saint in the Sun | 1963 | Doubleday, Garden City, NY | Y | Short story collection |
| Vendetta for the Saint | 1964 | Doubleday, Garden City, NY | Y | Novel |
| The Saint in Pursuit | 1970 | Doubleday, Garden City, NY | Y | Novel |
| The Saint and the People Importers | 1970 | Doubleday, Garden City, NY | Y | Novel |

## Screenplays

The screenplays of Leslie Charteris :
| Title | Year | Co-writer(s) | Studio |
| Midnight Club | 1933 | Seton I. Miller | Paramount Pictures |
| The Saint's Double Trouble | 1940 | Ben Holmes | RKO Radio Pictures |
| The Saint's Vacation | 1941 | Jeffrey Dell | RKO Radio Pictures |
| The Saint in Palm Springs | 1941 | Jerome Cady | RKO Radio Pictures |
| Lady on a Train | 1945 | – | Universal |
| River Gang | 1945 | – | Universal |
| Two Smart People | 1946 | Ethel Hill | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Tarzan and the Huntress | 1947 | Jerry Gruskin, Rowland Leigh | RKO Radio Pictures |

## Non-fiction

Other works of Charteris :
| Title | Year of first publication | First edition publisher | Category | Notes |
| Juan Belmonte, Killer of Bulls: The Autobiography of a Matador | 1937 | Heinemann, London | Autobiography | Charteris undertook the translation from Spanish to English |
| Spanish for Fun | 1964 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Language guide | – |
| Paleneo: A Universal Sign Language | 1972 | Hodder & Stoughton, London | Sign language guide | Paleneo, a wordless, pictorial sign language, was invented by Charteris |
| The Saint Meets the Tiger | 1980 | Charter Communications, Indianapolis, IN | Saint novel | Introduction only |