Marvin Lachman

The American Regional Mystery

Marvin Lachman

• 2001 Macavity-Nonfiction winner
• 2001 Anthony-Critical nominee
• 2000 Agatha–Nonfiction nominee
• Score: 22.51

Penzler Pick, February 2001: More than 30 years ago, Marvin Lachman began writing a series of articles for a now defunct mystery fan magazine (fanzine, to the informed), The Mystery Reader’s Newsletter. The subject was regional mysteries, which previously had not been written about. When that pioneering newsletter folded, it was picked up by the greatest of all mystery fanzines, The Armchair Detective, under the impressive editorship of Allen J. Hubin. The series required 14 installments, running from February 1970 to October 1977. The…

The Heirs of Anthony Boucher: A History of Mystery Fandom

Marvin Lachman

• 2006 Anthony-Critical winner
• 2005 Agatha–Nonfiction nominee
• Score: 16.56

This history of mystery fandom is called The Heirs of Anthony Boucher because it was to Boucher’s mystery review column in the New York Times Book Review that fans turned, before what Lachman calls “The Fan Revolution” was launched in 1967. In a literary domino effect, Boucher’s column led to the first fan magazine, The Armchair Detective, and Boucher encouraged and reviewed it. Boucher’s sudden death in 1968 was a shock to mystery fans, but everything they have done since is part of Anthony Boucher’s legacy.