David K. Frasier

Background

David K. Frasier was born on December 17, 1951, in Evansville, Indiana, United States. He is the son of Eliegey Thurman and June (Steele) Frasier.

Education

David Frasier began his undergraduate studies at Indiana State University-Evansville (now the University of Southern Indiana) and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1976. He continued his education at Indiana University Bloomington where he obtained a Master of Library Science degree in 1982.

Career

David Frasier, after obtaining his degrees, in 1984 became the head of technical services at Kinsey Institute. In 1988 he went to Indiana University Bloomington and began his career as a reference librarian. During his years in this position, he also made bibliographic studies.

Writing afforded him the opportunity to meet many of the individuals whose work exerted a profound influence on his life. Since seeing a twin bill of a fan of 'sexploitation,' film director Russ Meyer's films, Frasier was able in 1990 to publish the first reference book on this unique filmmaker titled Russ Meyer: The Life and Films: A Biography and a Comprehensive, Illustrated and Annotated Filmography and Bibliography, using research material in his Hollywood Hills home/archive. This, in turn, led to a ten-year collaboration with Meyer, during which time he edited his three-volume autobiography, A Clean Breast: The Life and Loves of Russ Meyer.

Similarly, a teenaged fascination with filmmaker and Hollywood historian Kenneth Anger's book Hollywood Babylon led to a lifelong fascination with show business decadence. As a result, the book Suicide in the Entertainment Industry: An Encyclopedia of 840 Twentieth Century Cases was published in 2002.

Frasier is also known as the author of Murder Cases of the Twentieth Century: Biographies and Bibliographies of 280 Convicted or Accused Killers (1996) and Show Business Homicides: An Encyclopedia, 1908-2009 (2010). He contributed to library journals as well.

Achievements

• David Frasier is a reference librarian known for his more than twenty-five years of experience at Indiana University Bloomington.
  
  Frasier succeeded as an author as well. He received the 1997 Reference and User Services Association Award from the American Library Association for Murder Cases of the Twentieth Century: Biographies and Bibliographies of 280 Convicted or Accused Killers. His other books are also considered to be truly informative, exhaustive, and well-written.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Show Business Homicides: An Encyclopedia, 1908-2009

    (A companion volume to the author's Suicide in the Enterta...)

    2010
  • Suicide in the Entertainment Industry: An Encyclopedia of 840 Twentieth Century Cases

    (This work covers 840 intentional suicide cases initially ...)

    2002
  • Russ Meyer: The Life and Films: A Biography and a Comprehensive, Illustrated and Annotated Filmography and Bibliography

    (Credited with having "opened the floodgates of screen per...)

    1990
  • Murder Cases of the Twentieth Century: Biographies and Bibliographies of 280 Convicted or Accused Killers

    (In this book, Fraiser tells about 280 of the most famous ...)

    1996

Membership

David Frasier is a member of the Indiana University Librarians Association.

Interests

• reading, vintage films

Connections

David Frasier married a woman named Mary on March 16, 1985. The marriage produced a child, Hayden Daniel.

Father:

Eliegey Thurman Frasier

Mother:

June (Steele) Frasier