#Anthony Boucher

[gtetrahedron]

Other Worlds, Other Gods

finished "other worlds, other gods" a '71 short story collection focusing on religion in science fiction. lots of it is real pulpy, with only the slightest hints of new wave shining through (mostly via john brunner), but its some good pulp. not a long or heavy read, only a day or two.

most of the stories were from the late 50s and early 60s, with a few from the 40s and late 60s. highlights include lee suttons soul mate, john brunners the vitanuls, anthony bouchers the quest for saint aquin, and damon knights shall the dust praise thee. 

i would recommend it with the caveat that theres nothing super weird, unfortunately (which would be my main criticism). it mostly stuck to christianity (primarily catholicism!) and pastiches of such, with a few jewish cameos and one of hinduism and buddhism each. no alien religions, really. weirdest one was definitely soul mate. nothing ubik-level, lol.

side-note if any of my followers is more learned in hinduism: id be curious about your reading of the vitanuls; im not sure how accurate of a representation it is, being written by a brit, but it seems decent enough? i have very little knowledge of the religion, though, and am supremely unconfident saying that.

[ratlas-t-ratlas]

Shoutout to Dee at the county library who just helped me find the werewolf short story I've been trying to find again for over five years, you're a real one.

It was 'The Compleat Werewolf' by Anthony Boucher, coincidentally also free as part of project Gutenberg! It's so much goddamn fun. It's about Professor Wolfe Wolf who gets dumped by his girlfriend, gets drunk with a wizard who teaches him how to turn into a wolf, and spends the next few weeks trying to figure out how this will help him get his girlfriend back. Did I mention he solves crimes?

Anyway, read it right now! It's free! No one can stop you!

https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/bouchera-compleatwerewolf/bouchera-compleatwerewolf-00-h.html

[veryslowreader]

A Treasury of Great Science Fiction

To the Stars

[bookmaven]

PILGRIMAGE: THE BOOK OF THE PEOPLE by Zenna Henderson (Garden City, Doubleday, 1961) Cover art by Mel Hunter. // (London: Gollancz, 1962)

PILGRIMAGE is a ‘fix-up novel’ of Henderson’s first six stories about The People, a society whose members control special psychic abilities. The stories premiered separately in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction edited by Anthony Boucher, and were later “refurbished” into the longer form.

“Ararat” — October, 1952

“Gilead” — August, 1954

“Pottage” — September, 1955

“Wilderness” — January 1957

“Captivity” — June, 1958

“Jordan” — March, 1959

“Wilderness”, January 1957. Cover by Paul Blaisdell. // “Captivity”, June 1958. Cover by Mel Hunter.

(New York: Avon, 1965) Cover by Neil Boyle. // (London: Panther, 1965) Cover by Michael Leonard. // (New York: Avon, 1965) Cover by Hector Garrido.

[thegothiclibrary]

Humorous Ghost Stories

Not every ghost story has to be terrifying! Indeed, horror and humor are surprisingly similar modes of writing—both depend on eliciting certain emotional reactions from the reader through carefully timed revelations and unexpected juxtapositions. Horror can all too easily give way into unintentional humor, as any connoisseur of schlocky B-movies can tell you. But that blurred line can also be…

[theamazingstories]

RETRO REVIEW –STAR SCIENCE FICTION #2 (1954)

Figure 1 Srar Science Fiction #2 Cover by John Berkey I had planned to review the British (Sky) science fiction series, The Lazarus Project, now about to enter Season 2, for this week; it’s pure SF with only a minimum of technobabble (just enough to enable the premise), but I think I’ll need to devote a lot of thought to how one can review a continuing series without entirely spoiling the whole…

[hisfearlesshaz]

How to cope with your friend being murdered by mexican bandits

a guide by Anthony Boucher

Step one: pick up a paper cutter said friend gifted you

Step two: say naaah, and pick up a pencil instead

Step three: write a threnody

Step four: fry an egg (!!)

[parkstone-international]

Capturing Brilliance: 1000 Portraits of Genius Illuminate the World

Capturing Brilliance: 1000 Portraits of Genius Illuminate the World

[radiofreeskaro]

Radio Free Skaro #884 - Holiday Special Deathmatch

Radio Free Skaro #884 - Holiday Special Deathmatch - #DoctorWho trailer talk! - Holiday Special Deathmatch! - w/guests @HollyGoDarkly and @xanister!

http://traffic.libsyn.com/freyburg/rfs884.mp3 Download MP3 Happy Holidays all and especially a Happy Boxing Day to those in Canada and the UK. And quite a sock to the jaw it was to see a Doctor Who 60th anniversary trailer on Xmas Day! Still nothing new with Ncuti Gatwa’s incarnation of the Doctor but we do have more of Tennant’s Who the 14th, Donna Noble, and most importantly, Beep The Meep!…

[ourstaturestouchtheskies]

taylor swift lyrics x colors x textiles in art – blue

Tim McGraw – Taylor Swift // Portrait of Marie-Joseph Peyre – Marie-Suzanne Giroust 💙 Tim McGraw – Taylor Swift // Lady in the Boudoir – Gustav Holweg-Glantschnigg 💙 A Place in This World – Taylor Swift // Portrait of Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester – Jean-Étienne Liotard 💙 Dear John – Speak Now // Young Woman in a Blue Dress – Jacopo Negretti 💙 State of Grace – Red // Portrait of Mrs. Matthew Tilghman and her Daughter – John Hesselius 💙 Red – Red // An Unknown Man – Joseph Highmore 💙 All Too Well – Red // Portrait of a Man with a Quilted Sleeve – Titian 💙 Everything Has Changed – Red // Portrait of the Marquis de Saint-Paul – Jean-Baptiste Greuze 💙 Starlight – Red // Mrs. Richard Brown – John Hesselius 💙 Run – Red // Judith with the Head of Holofernes – Felice Ficherelli 💙 This Love – 1989 // Fair Rosamund – John William Waterhouse 💙 Delicate – Reputation // Miss Elizabeth Ingram – Joshua Reynolds 💙 Gorgeous – Reputation // Marguerite Hessein, Lady of Rambouillet de la Sablière – workshop of Henri and Charles Beaubrun 💙 Dancing with Our Hands Tied – Reputation // George Albert, Prince of East Frisia – Johann Conrad Eichler

Cruel Summer – Lover // Peter August Friedrich von Koskull – Michael Ludwig Claus 💙 Lover – Lover // Lady Oxenden – Joseph Wright of Derby 💙 Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince – Lover // Portrait of Ivan Ivanovich Betskoi – Alexander Roslin 💙 Paper Rings – Lover // Young Woman in a Blue Dress – Jacopo Negretti 💙 London Boy – Lover // Queen Henrietta Maria with Sir Jeffrey Hudson – Anthony van Dyck 💙 Afterglow – Lover // Portrait of Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Golitsyn – Fyodor Rokotov 💙 Christmas Tree Farm – Christmas Tree Farm // Portrait of Mary Ruthven, Lady van Dyck – Anthony van Dyck 💙 invisible string – folklore // Two Altar Wings with the Visitation of Mary – unknown artist 💙 invisible string – folklore // Portrait of Madame de Pompadour – François Boucher 💙 peace – folklore // Fair Rosamund – John William Waterhouse 💙 hoax – folklore // Portrait of Charles le Normant du Coudray – Jean-Baptiste Perronneau 💙 coney island – evermore // Portrait of the Marquis de Saint-Paul – Jean-Baptiste Greuze 💙 Carolina – Carolina // Mrs. Daniel Sargent – John Singleton Copley 💙 Bejeweled – Midnights // Elsa Elisabeth Brahe – David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl 💙 The Great War – Midnights // Portrait of Françoise Marie de Bourbon – attributed to François de Troy 💙 Hits Different – Midnights // Mrs. Benjamin Pickman – John Singleton Copley

[elegancepromos]

Interaction Call for the following starters:

Anthony Williams (Alfred Enoch FC): Anthony just proposed to his long-term girlfriend and was rejected. Your muse is the one who rejected him.

Harmony Jones (Janel Parrish FC): Harmony feels that her marriage is falling apart and she is ready to stop trying. Your muse is the estranged husband.

Garrett Walker (Elliot Fletcher FC): Garrett is reflecting upon the end of his marriage. Your muse is a close person to him.

Aaron Burke (Ben Levin FC): Aaron has recently started a new relationship but just ran into his ex for the first time. Your muse is his ex.

Isaac Boucher (Avan Jogia FC): Isaac is into casual hookups which he is always clear about. Your muse has caught feelings.

Lana Neves (Luisa D'Oliveira FC): Lana recently lost the love of her life and is now going on her first date in a long time. Your muse is trying to pump her up.

[nem0c]

Vietnam War - Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, June 1968

Sourced from: http://natsmusic.net/articles_galaxy_magazine_viet_nam_war.htm

Transcript Below

We the undersigned believe the United States must remain in Vietnam to fulfill its responsibilities to the people of that country.

Karen K. Anderson, Poul Anderson, Harry Bates, Lloyd Biggle Jr., J. F. Bone, Leigh Brackett, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Mario Brand, R. Bretnor, Frederic Brown, Doris Pitkin Buck, William R. Burkett Jr., Elinor Busby, F. M. Busby, John W. Campbell, Louis Charbonneau, Hal Clement, Compton Crook, Hank Davis, L. Sprague de Camp, Charles V. de Vet, William B. Ellern, Richard H. Eney, T. R. Fehrenbach, R. C. FitzPatrick, Daniel F. Galouye, Raymond Z. Gallun, Robert M. Green Jr., Frances T. Hall, Edmond Hamilton, Robert A. Heinlein, Joe L. Hensley, Paul G. Herkart, Dean C. Ing, Jay Kay Klein, David A. Kyle, R. A. Lafferty, Robert J. Leman, C. C. MacApp, Robert Mason, D. M. Melton, Norman Metcalf, P. Schuyler Miller, Sam Moskowitz, John Myers Myers, Larry Niven, Alan Nourse, Stuart Palmer, Gerald W. Page, Rachel Cosgrove Payes, Lawrence A. Perkins, Jerry E. Pournelle, Joe Poyer, E. Hoffmann Price, George W. Price, Alva Rogers, Fred Saberhagen, George O. Smith, W. E. Sprague, G. Harry Stine (Lee Correy), Dwight V. Swain, Thomas Burnett Swann, Albert Teichner, Theodore L. Thomas, Rena M. Vale, Jack Vance, Harl Vincent, Don Walsh Jr., Robert Moore Williams, Jack Williamson, Rosco E. Wright, Karl Würf.

We oppose the participation of the United States in the war in Vietnam.

Forrest J. Ackerman, Isaac Asimov, Peter S. Beagle, Jerome Bixby, James Blish, Anthony Boucher, Lyle G. Boyd, Ray Bradbury, Jonathan Brand, Stuart J. Byrne, Terry Carr, Carroll J. Clem, Ed M. Clinton, Theodore R. Cogswell, Arthur Jean Cox, Allan Danzig, Jon DeCles, Miriam Allen deFord, Samuel R. Delany, Lester del Rey, Philip K. Dick, Thomas M. Disch, Sonya Dorman, Larry Eisenberg, Harlan Ellison, Carol Emshwiller, Philip José Farmer, David E. Fisher, Ron Goulart, Joseph Green, Jim Harmon, Harry Harrison, H. H. Hollis, J. Hunter Holly, James D. Houston, Edward Jesby, Leo P. Kelley, Daniel Keyes, Virginia Kidd, Damon Knight, Allen Lang, March Laumer, Ursula K. LeGuin, Fritz Leiber, Irwin Lewis, A. M. Lightner, Robert A. W. Lowndes, Katherine MacLean, Barry Malzberg, Robert E. Margroff, Anne Marple, Ardrey Marshall, Bruce McAllister, Judith Merril, Robert P. Mills, Howard L. Morris, Kris Neville, Alexei Panshin, Emil Petaja, J. R. Pierce, Arthur Porges, Mack Reynolds, Gene Roddenberry, Joanna Russ, James Sallis, William Sambrot, Hans Stefan Santesson, J. W. Schutz, Robin Scott, Larry T. Shaw, John Shepley, T. L. Sherred, Robert Silverberg, Henry Slesar, Jerry Sohl, Norman Spinrad, Margaret St. Clair, Jacob Transue, Thurlow Weed, Kate Wilhelm, Richard Wilson, Donald A. Wollheim.

[bloodgulchblog]

Lmao so I finally started reading that old sf zine discussion from the 60s about Starship Troopers.

Anthony Boucher provided a reprint of a review he wrote.

Kill him, Tony.

Of note there is overall a great deal of concern about who is this book intended for? from multiple writers.

The book was listed both for adults and for 12 and up in the publisher's catalog sections.

Dean McLaughlin has a long letter from the following month and I'm still not done with him but he's off to a good start:

[cannedbluesblog]

"Adam Diment is a spy novelist who published four novels between 1967 and 1971. All four are about the adventures of Philip McAlpine whom critic Anthony Boucher described as "an agent who smokes hashish, leads a highly active sex life, kills vividly, uses (or even coins) the latest London slang and still seems a perfectly real (and even oddly likeable) young man rather than a reflected Bond image."

Diment disappeared from public view after his last novel, adding to his cult figure status among fans of 1960s spy novels. According to The Observer, by 1975 Diment was living in Zurich, shunning publicity, and had no plans to write further novels". Info from Wiki

[bookmaven]

JUDGEMENT NIGHT by C.L. Moore (New York: Gnome Press, ) Cover art by Frank Kelly Freas.

Astounding Science-Fiction v31 #6, August 1943 edited by John W. Campbell, Jr. Cover by William Timmins

JUDGEMENT NIGHT by C.L. Moore. Illustrated by A. Williams [Part 1 of 2]

“The Mutant’s Brother” by Fritz Leiber, Jr. Illustrated by F. Kramer

“One-Way Trip” by Anthony Boucher. Illustrated by Kolliker

“Endowment Policy” by Lewis Padgett. Illustrated by Hall

“M 33 in Andromeda” by A.E. van Vogt. Illustrated by A. Williams [Beagle]

“When Is When?” by Malcolm Jameson. Illustrated by F. Kramer [Anachron, Inc.]

(New York: Popular Library, 1965) Cover artist unknown. // [aka LA NUIT DU JUGEMENT] (Paris: J’ai Lu, 1966) Cover art by Wojtek Siudmak.

[dirtyriver]

RIP Marijane Meaker aka Vin Packer (27 May 1927 - 21 November 2022)

From her obit in The Guardian:

Fan mail from a generation of closeted women flooded the offices of Gold Medal Books after the 1952 publication of Spring Fire – a novel about a lesbian affair among a college sisterhood – from unlikely fans of its author, Marijane Meaker, who has died aged 95.

Unlikely, not only because of the male pseudonym used by Meaker – Vin Packer – but also because its heroine is “saved” from the clutches of a nymphomanical lesbian seducer, who winds up committed to a psychiatric hospital. Although the men who wrote Gold Medal’s hard-boiled crime fiction specialised in exploitation, the daring Spring Fire sold 1.5m copies in its first edition.

Meaker was an editorial assistant at Gold Medal at the time, and a lesbian. “We were floored by the mail that poured in,” she said. “This was the first time anyone was aware there was a gay audience out there.” She was prompted to write, as Ann Aldrich, a series of pseudo-sociological studies of lesbians, starting with We Walk Alone Through Lesbos’ Lonely Groves (1955), which became a kind of Lonely Planet guide for women who had yet to come out.

She wrote 20 books as Packer, starting with a thriller, Dark Intruder (1952), and nearly 40 others under a variety of names, including her own. Packer’s psychological crime novels were praised by the New York Times reviewer Anthony Boucher, and drew favourable comparisons to Patricia Highsmith, who, also in 1952, published her own “serious” lesbian novel, The Price of Salt, using the pseudonym Claire Morgan.

In a case of life imitating art, Meaker and Highsmith became lovers, a relationship detailed in Meaker’s acute 2003 memoir, Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950s.