Rocket to the Morgue

Now-dead author Fowler Foulkes and his literary creation "Dr. Derringer" occupy a major position in science fiction: the character has entered popular culture, and is known around the world.

[1] In 2017, James Nicoll noted that, unlike of much of Boucher's work, Rocket to the Morgue was not out of print; he attributed this to "catering to SF fans’ egos."

[2] The Heinlein Society felt that "As a mystery novel, [it] falls a bit short," and it has "too many characters," but conceded that it is "an intriguing look into the beginnings of science fiction as we know it today"; they also noted that Heinlein's "...And He Built a Crooked House" was published at approximately the same time as when Boucher was writing the chapter in which characters discuss four-dimensional space.

Many characters are thinly-veiled versions of personalities such as Robert A. Heinlein ("Austin Carter"),[4] L. Ron Hubbard ("D. Vance Wimpole"),[5] then-literary agent Julius Schwartz ("M. Halstead Phynn")[6] and rocket scientist/occultist/fan Jack Parsons ("Hugo Chantrelle");[5] or recognizable composites of two writers ("Matt Duncan" – Cleve Cartmill and Henry Kuttner; "Joe Henderson" – Jack Williamson and Edmond Hamilton).

[4] Some writers' actual pseudonyms appear as minor characters, most prominently "Don Stuart, editor of Surprising" (John W. Campbell, editor of Astounding Science Fiction);[4] but also "Anson Macdonald" and "Lyle Monroe" (both Heinlein pseudonyms), and Boucher himself (under his real name of William Anthony Parker White).