And while his crime fiction (as opposed to suspense/horror
such as "They Bite"--it's been too long for me to remember on
which side of the arbitrary line that fine story falls) and
such hybrids as "The Compleat Werewolf" may not be hb, they
aren't anyone's stereotypical cozy, either. Although the wit
of many of the better cozy writers is in evidence here, as
well.
(Just in case anyone doesn't know, William White, aka
"Anthony Boucher," "H. H. Holmes," and "Herman W. Mudgett"
[to stick with the pseuds I understand he lifted from
mass-murderers] not only was the first to translate Jorge
Luis Borges's crime fiction into English, and the cofounder
of THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, but also
edited THE BEST DETECTIVE STORIES OF THE YEAR for a long
stretch, and was as Boucher the CF reviewer for the NY TIMES
while as Holmes was the CF reviewer for the NY HERALD TRIBUNE
for another long stretch. Also, he was an early member of the
Pacifica Radio gang, and conducted opera programs for that
pioneering public broadcasting entity. And. I'm still looking
forward someday to reading his sf-community roman a clef
ROCKET TO THE MORGUE...and see you at the Bouchercon.)
TM
-----Original Message----- From: James Reasoner [mailto:
james53@flash.net]
----- Original Message ----- From: <
abc@wt.net>
> Bob Toomey writes: "Boucher's fiction is far from
hardboiled, but he was
> a great friend of
> hardboiled and one of the first important reviewers
to pay attention to
> tough paperback originals."
>
> Absolutely. Boucher was reviewing John D. MacDonald,
Charles Williams,
> Jim Thompson, Gil Brewer, Peter Rabe (not to mention
lesser lights like
> Al Fray, Jack Ehrlich, and many others) before they
were even a blip on
> the radar of any other reviewer.
>
> Bill Crider
And occasionally, as in the story "They Bite", he comes
pretty darned close to hardboiled.
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