Lachman - The Heirs of Anthony Boucher: a history of mystery fandom

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Anthony Boucher

This history of mystery fandom is called The Heirs of Anthony Boucher because it was to Boucher that fans turned before The Fan Revolution was launched in 1967. There were fans before 1967, and I shall discuss them. However, it was in 1967 that the mystery developed a fandom that was not limited to specific authors or characters such as Sherlock Holmes.

Boucher was an excellent mystery writer, but he gave up writing novelsthough he continued to write the occasional short storyto review mysteries for the San Francisco Chronicle in 1942. In 1951 he became the mystery critic for the New York Times Book Review. In addition, he reviewed for Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine. He was considered the outstanding reviewer of crime fiction in America and on three occasions received Edgars from Mystery Writers of America for his writing.

Boucher mentioned fan activities in his column, but there were few except for those involving Sherlock Holmes. Boucher reviewed what was perhaps the earliest general fan scholarship, A Preliminary Check List of the Detective Novel and Its Variants (1966), an annotated list of recommendations by Charles Shibuk. In 1966 Boucher also wrote of a bibliography of the works of John Dickson Carr, compiled by Rick Sneary of California.

I had been reading mysteries for almost twenty-five years before I had the opportunity to write or speak to another fan. In 1967 I was only one of millions of mystery readers, but I also considered myself a fan. I kept notes on the books I read, prepared checklists of favorite authors, and compiled brief biographies of them and their series detectives. They were only for my own use then.

My isolation was ended in 1967 when Allen J. Hubin surveyed the people who had requested Snearys work, asking if they were interested in a journal about mystery fiction. The answers he received were positive. I was one of those replying enthusiastically. Those interested subscribed and provided enough articles and reviews to fill the first issue. The Armchair Detective and the Fan Revolution were born. In a delightful coincidence, at about the same time, Lianne Carlin founded her fan magazine, The Mystery Lovers Newsletter.

Hubin wrote to me about a mystery fan, Charles Shibuk, living, as I did then, in the Bronx, and I telephoned him. We spoke of mysteries for an hour, my first conversation with another fan, and it was the start of a long friendship.

Since I was there at the beginning and have continued to be active in fandom to the present, it would be false modesty not to mention myself in this history. I have tried to be objective, but because I care about the mystery, its past, present, and future, I do not avoid expressing opinions on possibly controversial subjects.

In 1967 Bouchers advice and strong encouragement were major factors in Hubins going ahead with The Armchair Detective. Boucher enthusiastically reviewed the first issue on December 3, 1967. He spoke for mystery fans when he described it as the kind of journal for which he had been looking for many years. He wrote letters that were published in the second and third issues of The Armchair Detective.

We expected Boucher would play a major role in the newly born fandom, but that was not to be. I can still recall the shock of reading Bouchers obituary in the newspaper on May 1, 1968. It was as if a friend had died. I had read his column on Sundays for almost twenty years. Everything that has been done in mystery fandom since he died is part of Anthony Bouchers legacy.