Leslie S. Klinger

Leslie S. Klinger is considered to be one of the world’s foremost authorities on Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, H. P. Lovecraft, Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde, and the history of crime and horror fiction. Klinger is a long-time member of the Baker Street Irregulars, and served as the Series Editor for the Manuscript Series of The Baker Street Irregulars; he is currently the Series Editor for the BSI’s Biography Series. He served three terms as Chapter President of the SoCal Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America and on its National Board. He also served for ten years as the Treasurer of the Horror Writers Association. He co-edited The Haunted Library, a series of eight horror classics published by the HWA, and is currently the editor of the 15-volume Library of Congress Crime Classics series, a partnership of the Library of Congress and Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks. To date, he has edited more than 75 books, including Annotated Sandman and Watchmen Annotated for DC Entertainment as well as Annotated American Gods (with Neil Gaiman). He lectures frequently on Holmes, Dracula, Lovecraft, Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde, and the history of crime and horror fiction, including frequent panels at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Bouchercon, NecronomiCon, StokerCon, World Horror Convention, World Fantasy Convention, VampireCon, Comicpalooza, WonderCon, and San Diego Comic-Con, and he has taught several courses on Holmes and Dracula at UCLA Extension.

Klinger’s work has received numerous awards and nominations, including the Edgar® for Best Critical-Biographical Book in 2005 for The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories, the Edgar® for Best Critical-Biographical Book in 2019 for Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s and the Anthony for Best Anthology in 2015 for In the Company of Sherlock Holmes (co-edited with Laurie R. King); he was nominated for an Edgar® for Best Critical-Biographical Book in 2006, two nominations for the Bram Stoker Award® for Best Nonfiction book, and an Anthony for Best Critical/Non-fiction for Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s. His New Annotated Frankenstein was recently nominated for a World Fantasy Award. His introductions and essays have appeared in numerous books, graphic novels, academic journals, newspapers, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and Playboy Magazine; he also reviews books for the Los Angeles Times. He was the technical advisor for Warner Bros. on the film Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) and served (without credit) in that role for Warner Bros.’ earlier hit Sherlock Holmes (2009) and the technical advisor for Legendary Films for the two Enola Holmes films. He has also consulted on a number of novels, comic books, and graphic novels featuring Holmes and Dracula.

Les attended the University of California where he received an A.B. in English; he also attended the University of California School of Law (Boalt Hall, now BerkeleyLaw), where he obtained a J.D. degree. He and his wife Sharon have five adult children, six grandchildren, and live in Malibu with their cats. By day, Klinger practices law in Westwood, specializing in tax, estate planning, and business law.