Besides his scholarly work that included eleven monographs about German culture and literature, he wrote short stories and novels with some autobiographic elements, many of them concerned with migration.

Two novels were published during his lifetime, the 1921 expressionist Die Mutter und der neutrale Sohn and the 1977 Im Roten Ochsen: Geschichte einer Heimkehr about a Swiss emigrant couple's return home.

Boeschenstein was born in the Swiss town of Stein am Rhein, the son of Hermann Böschenstein, a merchant, and his wife Katharina, née Krüsi.

After volunteering as a medical orderly for the Polish Army in 1920,[5] Boeschenstein studied German literature, philosophy, archaeology, and history at the universities of Berlin, Kiel, Königsberg, and finally the University of Rostock,[6] where he obtained a PhD in 1924, with a thesis on the aesthetics of Swiss philosopher Jean-Pierre de Crousaz,[7] supervised by Emil Utitz.

Some of his experiences from this time later featured in his autobiographic collection of short stories and anecdotes Unter Schweizern in Kanada (Among Swiss in Canada).

[18] When World War II started in 1939, Boeschenstein was briefly arrested in his Toronto home on suspicion of being German and hence an enemy of Canada, but released on the same day after explaining he came from neutral Switzerland.

[19] In 1943, Boeschenstein was approached by Jerome Davis to join the Canadian committee of the War Prisoner's Aid of the YMCA, and he started full time work on this in May 1943 and was responsible for all POW related activities from July 1943.

[13] He travelled to the 26 internment camps and work detachments spread out all over Canada,[20] helping prisoners by providing literature and with issues like contacting family or dealing with officials.

[24] Later in life, he wrote a book on 19th-century German literature in which Paul Heyse's works are described as "dangerously perfect in style and structure.

"[27] Boeschenstein edited a volume of German-Canadian humour that included the Joe Klotzkopp letters of John Adam Rittinger.

[11] His second novel, written after his retirement, is about an emigrant couple's return to his Swiss home town, Stein am Rhein, where the titular Zum Roten Ochsen is a real inn.

[38] Between these two novels, Boeschenstein published a collection of stories and anecdotes Unter Schweizern in Kanada,[10] with autobiographical content from the years 1926 to about 1947.

[45] Other students include Klaus Bongart (1968/69, The Political and Social Problems in the Prose Works of Heinrich Zschokke),[46] Margaret Mian (1970/71, Hermann Broch's Views on Art, Literature and Language), Joseph L. Vida, (1970/71, The Hungarian Image in Nineteenth Century German Literature),[47] and Kari Grimstad (1972/73, Karl Kraus as a Literary Critic).

[9] On summer weekends, they were often guests of George Needler's family on his Lake of Bays property, where Boeschenstein relaxed by cutting grass or painting landscapes.