Better known by his pseudonym Anthony Boucher, William Anthony Parker White was born in Oakland, California, on August 21, 1911, the only child of two physicians. He attended college in Southern California, graduating from the University of Southern California in 1932, and then obtained an M.A. in German from the University of California at Berkeley. He initially planned to teach languages but turned to writing, first creating his own plays and then writing reviews as a theater and music critic for the Los Angeles-based United Progressive News.

After settling in Berkeley with his wife Phyllis, White successively—sometimes simultaneously—served as mystery book editor for the San Francisco Chronicle; contributor and reviewer for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine; fantasy reviewer for the Chicago Sun-Times and New York Herald Tribune; mystery reviewer for the New York Times Book Review; editor for True Crime Detective; and reviewer for Opera News. From 1949 to 1968, he created, wrote, and narrated "Golden Voices," a Berkeley KPFA radio program devoted to great singers of the early twentieth century. He won the Edgar Award three times for excellence in criticism. Additionally, White authored eight books of mystery or science fiction, compiled The Pocket Book of True Crime Stories (1941), and edited Great American Detective Stories (1945), Four and Twenty Bloodhounds (1950), the annual volumes of The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction (1952-1959), and Best Detective Stories of the Year (1963 and 1964). Perhaps White's most enduring contribution to science fiction and fantasy writing was the founding in 1949 of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction with his friend J. Francis McComas.

Other activities in White's career include: translator of detective and science fiction from French, Spanish, and Portuguese into English; writer of the CBC's radio series' "Sherlock Holmes" and "Gregory Hood," 1945-1948; consultant for the television series "Checkmate"; and informal advisor and reference librarian to hundreds of writers, readers, and publishers in the fields of mystery and fantasy fiction. White passed away in Oakland, CA, on April 29, 1968. A most noteworthy posthumous recognition of his many contributions was the naming of the annual mystery fiction conventions as "Bouchercons" in 1969.