SOURCE: "The Compleat Werewof" (Unknown, April 1942) by Anthony Boucher

DESCRIPTION: "The pain wasn't so sharp as this morning, though still quite bad enough. But it passed almost at once, and his whole body filled with a sense of limitless freedom. He lifted his snout and sniffed deep at the keen freshness of this night air. A whole new realm of pleasure opened up for him through this acute new nose alone. He wagged his tail amicably at Ozzy and set off up the canyon on a long, easy lope."

PLOT: Professor Wolfe Wolf is a werewolf. He is in love with a former student, Gloria Garton, now a starlet in Hollywood. Gloria rejects his proposal of marriage and Wolf goes to a bar to get drunk. There he meets Ozymandius the Great, a real magician who teaches him about being a werewolf. Now something special, Wolf decides to enter a contest for a dog actor that Garton is holding in Berkeley, to surprise her and win her love. Wolf tells Gloria everything, having over heard her professions of love to a detective named Fergus O'Breen. Gloria begs for Wolf to show her how he changes, and once in that form she plans to keep him that way. She doesn't love him but is actually a German spy working with Wolf's colleague, Dr. Fearing, who runs the hokey Temple of Dark Truth. The temple is a dodge for milking scientists of their military secrets. Wolf escapes but Gloria sends thugs to kill his secretary, Emily. In a desperate attempt to save her (now realizing he loves her and not Gloria), Wolf takes on the Nazi spies and wins the day.

WEREWOLF FACTS: Boucher uses many classic ideas: the werewolf can regenerate from wounds, the uni-brow, middle-finger and hairy palms. What is different is that the werewolf can turn himself into a wolf by saying "Absarka!" Boucher's werewolves are not evil by nature. If an evil person, they can return to their human form by a wicked charm which a good werewolf would never use (One involving murder no doubt.) The good werewolf has to trust another to say the word to return them to human form.

INTERESTING FACTS: This story is typical war-era Science Fiction, with Nazis for bad guys. I'd love to make it into a film, set in 1942.