The Heirs of Anthony Boucher Marvin Lachman

The Nineteen-Seventies
Frank Archibald of Needham, Massachusetts, waged a successful campaign to have
a stone placed at Freeman’s unmarked grave in England. When other commitments
forced Asdell to relinquish editorship of The Thorndyke File, John McAleer took over
in 1980 and soon doubled the subscribers to 156, half of whom were medical doctors.
Though The Thorndyke File is no longer published, a fan magazine, John Thorndyke’s
Journal, was published in England until recently by David Ian Chapman of Aldershot,
Hampshire.
Simenon Organizations (1976–)
Though most of his mysteries, especially his Inspector Maigret series, are set in
France, Georges Simenon was Belgian. Among several Simenon organizations in
Belgium is Le Centre D’études Georges Simenon in Liège. It was established in
1976 “for the development and dissemination of Simenon’s work.” They sponsor a
colloquium every two years and publish an annual review Traces. Scholarly information
can also be found in Liège at a foundation, Le Fonds Simenon de l’Université
de Liège, which provides access to over 7,000 works of Simenon. About 400 fans,
readers and scholars belong to Les Amis de Georges Simenon, in Beigem, Belgium,
which was founded in 1986. They publish Les Cahiers Simenon annually.
The Dorothy L. Sayers Society (1976–)
The popularity of Lord Peter Wimsey on British and American television, beginning
in the 1970s, led to renewed interest in Dorothy L. Sayers. Biographies and
collections of her letters have been published. The Dorothy L. Sayers Society was
established in 1976. Located in West Sussex, England, it sponsors regular meetings,
an annual conference, and a bimonthly newsletter. There are archives open to members.
The Dorothy L. Sayers Centre in Essex, England, has a collection of works by
and about Sayers.
Mohonk Mystery Weekend (1977–)
Because it started in 1977, the annual Mohonk Mystery Weekend at the Mountain
House at Lake Mohonk, in New York State’s Catskill Mountains, was probably the
first non-Bouchercon general mystery convention. It was originally organized by Dilys
Winn and Carol Brener of the Murder Ink bookstore in Manhattan. When first
held as a “Dead of Winter” weekend, January 27–30, 1977, there were panels about
the mystery, famous authors such as Phyllis Whitney and Isaac Asimov, and people
knowledgeable about mystery fiction, including Otto Penzler and Chris Steinbrunner.
The setting was an atmospheric 108-year-old hotel, and the event quickly proved
popular, selling out each year within two hours of the hotel accepting reservations.
The first Mohonk was not entirely learned discussions of mysteries. There was a
ghoulish cooking lesson by Winn, a talk by a safecracker, a ski tour, and a demonstration
with raptors called, inevitably, “Maltese Falconry.” However, increasingly,
murder games predominate at these weekends. Mohonk continues to draw noted
authors, but they often are there to participate in contests in which “murder” is committed
in full view of attendees, who then try to solve it, often in teams. These murder
events have proven popular at other hotels, on cruise ships, as corporate events,
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