Anthony Boucher (August 21, 1911 - April 29, 1968) [1] was an American science fiction editor and writer 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.

Boucher was born William Anthony Parker White in Oakland, California and went to college at the University of Southern California. He later received a Masters degree from the University of California at 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. He was also editor of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction for several years after its inception and was seminal in attempting to make literary quality an important aspect of science fiction. Anthony Boucher died of lung cancer on April 29, 1968 at the Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Oakland.

The annual Anthony Boucher Memorial World Mystery Convention was named in his honour.

Selected works

Mystery novels

• The Case of the Seven of Calvary (1937)
• The Case of the Crumpled Knave (1939)
• The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars (1940)
• Nine Times Nine (as H.H. Holmes) (1940)
• The Case of the Solid Key (1941)
• Rocket to the Morgue (as H.H. Holmes) (1942)
• The Case of the Seven Sneezes (1942)

Collections

• Exeunt Murderers (1983) (mysteries)
• The Compleat Boucher (1999) (fantasy and science fiction)

External links

• About A. Boucher
• A. Boucher page