A fine collection, and a 'must-have' for Boucher fans.
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William Anthony Parker White (1911-1968) is perhaps best knownas one of the founding editors of the Magazine of Fantasy and ScienceFiction. He was a distinguished book reviewer (for the NewYork Times and Herald-Tribune) and did much to raise literary standards for SF, both as an editor and critic, and as the author of the wry, literate, understated and still very readable stories collected here: 43 sf/f/h shorts (plus a 'poem' and a recipe), mostly written between 1940 and 1952.
This is a collection to be read a story or two at a time, or at least that's how I read it. Boucher's best stories -- "The Quest for St. Aquin", "The Compleat Werewolf", "Snulbug", "They Bite", "The Star Dummy" -- have entered the permanent sf/f/h repertoire and will be familiar to most, umm, 'mature' readers. I would urge younger readers, who could hardly be expected to drop 25 bucks on a collection of half-century old stories by someone they've barely heard of, to borrow the collection from your public library, and try (at least) the stories listed above. As in any complete collection, there are minor works, though I found everything here at least readable.
As always, NESFA books are a pleasure to read & hold: smooth, creamy paper, solid, full-cloth bindings, and a fine period cover of "Wolfie" by Jane Dennis. I do wish that editor Mann would have included a bit more biographical information about the author -- a page and a half seems skimpy.
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Tony Boucher
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Tony Boucher was one of the great editors of SF. He was the editor of the Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy in the 1950's, when the magazine was first finding its way. To this day, it still retains some of the glory and sparkle that he put there. Before he was a great editor, he was a great writer. This book contains his short stories. It is good that the NESFA keeps the names of Anthony Boucher, C.M. Kornbluth, Cordwainer Smith and other writers of the past alive. Their stories should be read and re-read even today.
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A Must for Serious Readers of Science Fiction
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Some of these stories are dated, but some are very powerful. I particularly recommend "We Print the Truth," a long story about the corruptive nature of power.
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