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Anthony Boucher


(William Anthony Parker White)
USA flag (1911 - 1968)

aka H H Holmes, Herman W Mudgett

Anthony Boucher (born William Anthony Parker White) (August 21, 1911 April 29, 1968) was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle. In addition to 'Anthony Boucher,' White also employed the pseudonym 'H. H. Holmes', which was the name of a 19th-century serial killer.

In a poll of 17 detective story writers and reviewers, his novel Nine Times Nine was voted as the ninth best locked room mystery of all time.

White was born in Oakland, California, and went to college at the University of Southern California. He later received a Masters degree from the University of California, Berkeley. He was admired for his mystery writing but was most noted for his editing, his science fiction anthologies, and his mystery reviews for many years in The New York Times. He was the first English translator of Jorge Luis Borges, translating "El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan" for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. He helped found the Mystery Writers of America in 1946 and, in the same year, was one of the first winners of the MWA's Edgar Award for his mystery reviews in the San Francisco Chronicle.
 

Genres: Science Fiction, Mystery
 
Series
Fergus O'Breen
   1. The Case of the Crumpled Knave (1939)
   2. The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars (1940)
     aka Blood on Baker Street
   3. The Case of the Solid Key (1941)
   4. The Case of the Seven Sneezes (1942)
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Novels
   The Case of the Seven of Calvary (1937)
   Rocket to the Morgue (1942) (as by H H Holmes)
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Collections
   Far and Away (1953)
   The Compleat Werewolf (1969)
   Exeunt Murderers (1983)
   The Incompleat Boucher (1998)
   The Compleat Boucher (1999)
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Anthologies edited
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Omnibus editions show
 
Anthony Boucher recommends
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The Hollywood Murders (2000)
Ellery Queen
"Ellery Queen IS the American detectivestory."
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It's Cold Out There (1966)
Malcolm Braly
"Braly... exposes most of the toughly 'realistic' writers as naive romantics."
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Gascoyne (1966)
Stanley Crawford
"A wild novel of black humor... wonderful."

More recommendations 


Anthologies containing stories by Anthony Boucher
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They're Here! (2023)
edited by
Hank Davis and Sean C W Korsgaard
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Sense of Wonder (2023)
A Century of Science Fiction
edited by
Leigh Ronald Grossman

More anthologies 


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