For those not in the know, Barker was an academic and linguist who wrote a very in-depth and detailed setting known as Tekumel: Empire of the Petal Throne. Not only was it one of the oldest published settings for D&D around 1975, it was also notable for being a world with multiple prominent non-white fantasy counterpart civilizations who weren't one-dimensional stereotypes.
So for many this was all the more shocking when it came to light that the now-deceased was in fact a secret Neo-Nazi. In 1991 he wrote a novel known as Serpent's Walk, which portrays Nazi war criminals post-WW2 as the good guys and was published by the same company which published the Turner Diaries. Barker was also a chairman for the Institute for Historical Review, a pseudo-intellectual group that promoted Holocaust denial.
The Tekumel Foundation, the estate in charge of managing and publishing MAR Barker's legacy, apparently knew about his white supremacist sympathies but kept quiet about it, with it leaking out via back channels over time. They came out with a statement on Facebook recently.
The Tekumel Foundation Board of Directors statement on Serpent’s Walk:
The Tekumel Foundation Board of Directors wants to acknowledge that our research shows Professor M.A.R. Barker wrote Serpent’s Walk, an anti-Semitic novel that was published under a pseudonym in 1991. We have done our due diligence to ascertain the facts regarding Serpent’s Walk and Professor Barker’s affiliation with The Journal of Historical Review and we believe this needs to be recognized as part of Professor Barker’s past. While nobody today is responsible for the odious views Professor Barker presented in Serpent’s Walk, we are responsible for recognizing this book as part of his legacy.
That this acknowledgment was not done earlier was and is a mistake, and we apologize for that. We have been reaching out to several Jewish organizations to express our outrage over our findings and make our priority to work with them through this issue.
What Professor Barker did was wrong and forever tarnished his creative and academic legacy. As stewards of the world of Tekumel, we reject and repudiate Serpent’s Walk and everything it stands for and all other anti-Semitic activity Professor Barker was involved with.
The Tekumel Foundation has never been involved with or profited from the publication, distribution, or sale of Serpent’s Walk in any way, shape, or form. All of the proceeds from sales of Tekumel-related material have gone and will continue to go to the Foundation and its work, and not to any racist or anti-Semitic organizations or causes, in any way, shape, or form.
You know the Mike Tyson Mysteries where when searching for the abominable snowman, they discover that someone's quirky Dad turns out to have a secret Hitler shrine? It's like that.
