After a friend told him that "William White" was too common a name, he used "H. H. Holmes" to write and review mysteries and "Anthony Boucher" for science fiction and fantasy.

He was also an editor, including science fiction anthologies, and wrote mystery reviews for many years in The New York Times.

[7] Among Boucher's critical writing was also contributing annual summaries of the state of speculative fiction for Judith Merril's The Year's Best SF series; as editor, he published the volumes in E. P. Dutton's The Best Detective Stories of the Year annual volumes published in 1963–1968, succeeding Brett Halliday and followed, after his death, by Allen J. Hubin in that task.

[citation needed] Boucher's first short story saw print when he was fifteen years old in the January 1927 issue of Weird Tales.

Boucher went on to write short stories for many pulp fiction magazines in America, including Adventure, Astounding, Black Mask, Ed McBain's Mystery Book, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Galaxy Science Fiction, The Master Detective, Unknown Worlds and Weird Tales.

[9] His 1942 novel Rocket to the Morgue, in addition to being a classic locked room mystery, is also something of a roman à clef about the Southern California science fiction culture of the time, featuring thinly veiled versions of personalities such as Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard and rocket scientist/occultist/fan Jack Parsons.

"[citation needed] Boucher left dramatic radio in 1948, "mainly because I was putting in a lot of hours working with J. Francis McComas in creating what soon became The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Boucher was a poker player, a political activist, a sport fan (football, basketball, track, gymnastics and rugby), a Sherlockian in The Baker Street Irregulars and a chef.

[citation needed] Boucher died of lung cancer on April 29, 1968, at the Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Oakland.