Douglas Messerli (born May 30, 1947) is an American writer, professor, and publisher based in Los Angeles, California.
Messerli’s brother later became a football coach and teacher, and his sister works for the Iowa State Department of Education.
Within this seemingly normal home life, Messerli developed at a young age a passion for theater, reading American and European figures such as Eugène Ionesco, Harold Pinter, Edward Albee, and Jean Genet.
In 1969 he returned to Wisconsin, where he met his lifelong companion, Howard Fox, at the first gay liberation meeting on campus.
Messerli concentrated on fiction until he met critic and teacher Marjorie Perloff, whose influence shifted his interests to poetry.
In the late 1970s he began to publish books under that name by major literary figures such as David Antin, Charles Bernstein, Paul Auster, Steve Katz, Russell Banks, and Djuna Barnes.
Through the next eighteen years, Messerli continued to edit Sun & Moon Press and his later imprint, Green Integer, as well as writing poetry, fiction, drama and other works.
And in numerous works, Messerli’s counter-ego, Claude Ricochet—through his imaginary critical writings, films, and essays—is quoted extensively.