The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: 4th Series

by Anthony Boucher (Editor)

FIRST PAPERBACK EDITION, First Printing, Ace #G-713, published 1967. Original hardcover published by Doubleday 1955. Sixteen stories previously published in the 'Fantasy and Science Fiction' magazine. The fourth edition in the annual series. Original 50 cover price. Paperback, 255 pages, 16 cm.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fantasy, Anthologies

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1955

About the author

William Anthony Parker White, better known by his pen name Anthony Boucher, was an American author, critic, and editor who wrote several classic mystery novels, short stories, science fiction, and radio dramas. Between 1942 and 1947, he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle. In addition to "Anthony Boucher", White also employed the pseudonym "H. H. Holmes", which was the pseudonym of a late-19th-century American serial killer; Boucher would also write light verse and sign it " Herman W. Mudgett" (the murderer's real name).
In a 1981 poll of 17 detective story writers and reviewers, his novel Nine Times Nine was voted as the ninth best locked room mystery of all time.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This fourth annual anthology of the editors' picks of the best from the previous years' issues of F & SF is the first one that Boucher edited without his partner and co-founder, J. Francis McComas. It presents the best from 1954, and my hardback book club edition has a cover from Mel Hunter that looks just like the work of Chesley Bonestell. There are short pieces from literary headliners Lord Dunsany and Shirley Jackson, as well as former editor McComas and future editor Avram Davidson, with a poem by Isaac Asimov. There are good stories by Robert Sheckley, Poul Anderson, C.M. Kornbluth, Manly Wade Wellman, and Richard Matheson. My favorites were two classics, Fondly Fahrenheit by Alfred Bester and All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury.

[Michael Vawser]

Biblio.com US$27.00

[Tbfrank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Particularly notable for the oft-collected stories by Poul Anderson, Alfred Bester, and Ray Bradbury, this volume includes gems by Robert Sheckley (The Accountant - a very early and amusing precursor to the world of Harry Potter), Daniel F. Galouye (Sanctuary - an intensely personal story of the curse of telepathy), and Richard Matheson (The Test - a cautionary glimpse into the future from 1954 which the Boomer generation may find all too real).