Anthony Boucher: A Biobibliography (Paperback)

by Jeffrey Marks (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
American author, editor, and critic William Parker White, better known to most as Anthony Boucher, made countless contributions to the fields of mystery and science fiction. After beginning his career as a mystery writer at 16, Boucher went on to become a New York Times mystery critic, a host for several radio programs, and the founding editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

This comprehensive biobibliography places particular emphasis on the writings and edited publications that established his reputation among readers of science fiction. Several appendices include complete bibliographic citations for Boucher's novels, articles, short stories, unpublished works, reviews, radio plays, anthologies, translations, and other written works.

About the Author
Jeffrey Marks is also the author of 11 other books, receiving an Ohioana Library Citation for his work in the mystery field, and garnering nominations for such major mystery awards as the Edgar, the Agatha, and the Anthony. He lives and teaches near Cincinnati, Ohio.

Product Details

• Paperback: 223 pages
• Publisher: McFarland (February 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786433205
• ISBN-13: 978-0786433209
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,293,614 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must-have book for mystery fans, April 4, 2008

By	Doris Ann Norris (Fostoria, OH United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Anthony Boucher has been a hero of mine since I first "met" him through his mystery reviews in the New York Times.
After that I've read most of his mystery novels and short stories. I discovered with Mr. Mark's book, that there is more to read.
Boucher was a true Renaissance man who could have produced more had it not been for his poor health.
He was certainly a man to admire. The largest of the mystery cons, Bouchercon, was named in his honor.
I learned more about this extraordinary man, the history of mystery writing in the 20th century and much about Boucher's reviewing standards and ethics.
Jeff Marks has done the mystery community a great favor and done it well.
Recommended for the true mystery aficionado.

5.0 out of 5 stars The Busiest Man in the Mystery Field, June 11, 2009

By	Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This time round Jeffrey Marks isn't giving us a regular biography, though he has shown us in his 2001 life of Craig Rice just how to do so. Instead he presents what he calls a bio-bibliography, rather an ugly neologism which lets him tell the story of Boucher's life four times in a row--first as a man, then as an author, then as an editor, then as a critic. This method isn't completely satisfactory, but on the other hand it allows Marks to display the fruits of prodigious research among Boucher's papers at the Lilly Library at Indiana University. He has a natural wit and ease with language and he seems very much an enthusiast of Boucher in all his manifestations. The result, a book not to be missed.

William Parker White took on the pseudonym of Anthony Boucher for his genre work, while reserving his birth name for more serious writing. Not much of that occurred, but what he wrote under the name Boucher has given millions of readers delight.. Severe asthma made his earthly existence miserable, but to his credit, he lived life to the max and never said never. To each his own, but I find Boucher's own fiction writing much superior to his other services to the mystery field, and for fans of Boucher's crime novels Marks' big reveal is the existence of a complete and unpublished Dr. Ashwin novel, The Case of the Toad-in-the-Hole, sitting in the Lilly Library just waiting for a publisher. Marks' synopsis makes the mouth water! One ticket to Bloomington, please....

The money was in editing and freelance projects, though, and Boucher had a family to support, so that he gradually abandoned fiction for the greener pastures of anthologies and reviewing. He became the mystery reviewer for the SF Chronicle, the New York Times Book Review, and for EQMM. He was also an extraordinarily clubby man, always starting new professional organizations and helping others in need, and he was loved by his colleagues. I'm in the minority but I don't see that he was ever a critic per se, and Marks doesn't persuade me that he was anything but a reviewer. Nor does Marks pursue the ethical implications of Boucher's reviewing practice and the way in which one hand almost proverbially washed the other. EQMM employed Boucher, who often enough voted a Queen novel among the best of the year; in fact, he ghostwrote for Ellery Queen, perpetuating the fraud upon the public which has stained the reputations of the cousins ever since. Boucher praised his friends, boosted the careers of others in his groups. Which is all very well, but this entanglement of honoraria, fees, cultural cachet, and invisible strings leads down some dark little alleys aesthetically speaking. You can see this principle working today, where any hack who goes to enough MWA meetings will eventually be named a Grand Master of something.

But this is not to take away from Jeffrey Marks' accomplishment--nor Boucher's really, who remains among the top ten US detective novelists ever. Marks has laid out the lineaments of his career, and placed his subject in the context of the complicated historical and social trajectories of his time--just as he did for Craig Rice and for the postwar female crime writers he treated in his 2003 group biography Atomic Renaissance. I can't wait to see where he goes next. And please somebody, get on the stick and bring us the Case of the Toad-in-the-Hole. It would sell like hotcakes I'm sure.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great and lovable man, June 12, 2008

By	James P. Mccauley "Seeker" (CA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

One is grateful for the many facts presented in this extensively researched book. I deduct two stars for three reasons. (1) The author is incapable or unwilling to render intelligible the dominant role that Boucher's faith played in his life. (2) The proofreading is abominable. (3) Some of the précis of Boucher's stories contain errors so absurd that one is left in doubt whether Mr. Marks had ever read them.

To take just Boucher's first novel, "The Case of the Seven of Calvary," we are told (p. 32) that Ryder is the Sanskrit translation of Ashwin. The text says the opposite. On the same page we are told that Ashwin exclaimed. "My dear Martin, this isn't a detective novel etc., etc." It was Paul Lennox who did the exclaiming, AND that exclamation is listed by Ashwin as one of the seven (or eight) crucial events that suggest the true solution of the crimes. (Chapter X, p. 247 in the first edition).

Again, Mr. Marks tells us that in the short mystery story "Death of a Patriarch" the accused but innocent victim of the murdered man is kidnapped by communists. Boucher was a thirties and forties liberal for whom the communists were admirable folk. In the real story the young man is kidnapped by ANTI-communists (who are naturally called "fascists")