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Rex Stout Bibliography
This is a bibliography of fiction by and works about the American writer Rex Stout (December 1, 1886 – October 27, 1975), an American writer noted for his detective fiction. He began his literary career in the 1910s, writing more than 40 stories that appeared primarily in pulp magazines between 1912 and 1918. He wrote no fiction for more than a decade, until the late 1920s, when he had saved enough money through his business activities to write when and what he pleased. In 1929, he wrote his first published book, ''How Like a God'', an unusual psychological story written in the second person. He wrote a pioneering political thriller, ''The President Vanishes'' (1934), before specializing in detective fiction. His 1934 novel '' Fer-de-Lance'' introduced his best-known characters, detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin, who were featured in 33 novels and 39 novellas and short stories between 1934 and 1975. In 1959, Stout received the Mystery Writers of America's Gra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rex Stout
Rex Todhunter Stout (; December 1, 1886 – October 27, 1975) was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. His best-known characters are the detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin, who were featured in 33 novels and 39 novellas between 1934 and 1975. In 1959, Stout received the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award. The Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated Best Mystery Series of the Century at Bouchercon XXXI, the world's largest mystery convention, and Rex Stout was nominated Best Mystery Writer of the Century. In addition to writing fiction, Stout was a prominent public intellectual for decades. Stout was active in the early years of the American Civil Liberties Union and a founder of the Vanguard Press. He served as head of the Writers' War Board during World War II, became a radio celebrity through his numerous broadcasts, and was later active in promoting world federalism. He was the long-time president of the Authors Guild, during which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Saturday Evening Post
''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influential magazines within the American middle class, with fiction, non-fiction, cartoons and features that reached two million homes every week. The magazine declined in readership through the 1960s, and in 1969 ''The Saturday Evening Post'' folded for two years before being revived as a quarterly publication with an emphasis on medical articles in 1971. As of the late 2000s, ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is published six times a year by the Saturday Evening Post Society, which purchased the magazine in 1982. The magazine was redesigned in 2013. History Rise ''The Saturday Evening Post'' was first published in 1821 in the same printing shop at 53 Market Street in Philadelphia where the Benjamin Franklin-founded ''Pennsyl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cordially Invited To Meet Death
"Cordially Invited to Meet Death" is a Nero Wolfe mystery novella by Rex Stout, first published in abridged form as "Invitation to Murder" in the April 1942 issue of ''The American Magazine''. It first appeared in book form in the short-story collection ''Black Orchids'', published by Farrar & Rinehart in 1942. Plot summary Bess Huddleston arranges parties for New York society. She has been in contact with Wolfe once before, when she wanted him to play the detective at a party that would feature a mock murder; Wolfe declined to participate. Now, she comes with one anonymous letter in hand and a report of another. They were not sent to her, nor do they threaten her directly: rather, one was sent to a client and the other to a member of the circle in which her clients move. The letters imply strongly that Miss Huddleston has been gossiping about her clients' private lives. She wants Wolfe to put an end to the smear campaign – if it continues, her monied clients will no longer trus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Orchids (novella)
"Black Orchids" is a Nero Wolfe mystery novella by Rex Stout, first published in abridged form as "Death Wears an Orchid" in the August 1941 issue of ''The American Magazine''. It first appeared in book form in the short-story collection ''Black Orchids'', published by Farrar & Rinehart in 1942. Plot summary Millionaire orchid fancier Lewis Hewitt has hybridized three black orchid plants in his Long Island greenhouse. Nero Wolfe is wild to have one, so he and Archie Goodwin visit New York's annual flower show, where Hewitt's orchids are on exhibit. One of the other exhibits features a daily performance by a young couple miming a summer picnic. The woman, Anne Tracy, attracts the attentions of Archie, Hewitt, and a young exhibitor named Fred Updegraff. During Wolfe's visit to the show, Anne's picnic partner Harry Gould is killed, shot in the head by a gun concealed in the foliage. The gun's trigger is attached to a long string that reaches to a hallway well behind the exhibit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Orchids
''Black Orchids'' is a Nero Wolfe double mystery by Rex Stout published in 1942 by Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. Stout's first short story collection, the volume is composed of two novellas that had appeared in abridged form in ''The American Magazine'': * "Black Orchids" (August 1941, abridged as "Death Wears an Orchid") * " Cordially Invited to Meet Death" (April 1942, abridged as "Invitation to Murder") Reviews and commentary * Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor, ''A Catalogue of Crime'' — In the first, Wolfe and Archie are in fine form, and murder at a flower show provides a suitable background for Wolfe's talents and predatory instincts. Archie himself innocently pulls the trigger. The second story is less satisfactory, involving as it does a highly debatable move by the murderer to disarm suspicion. Besides, too many animals.Barzun, Jacques and Taylor, Wendell Hertig. ''A Catalogue of Crime''. New York: Harper & Row. 1971, revised and enlarged edition 1989. * ''Time' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1942 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1942. Events *January 1 – The U.K. Book Production War Economy Agreement comes into force. *February 20 – Jean Bruller's novella ''Le Silence de la mer'' (Silence of the Sea), about resistance to the Nazi occupation of France, is issued clandestinely as the first publication of Les Éditions de Minuit in Paris, under the pseudonym "Vercors". A hundred copies are distributed from late summer; the rest are destroyed by the occupying authorities. *February 22 – The Austrian-born novelist Stefan Zweig and his wife Lotte are found dead of a barbiturate overdose in their home in Petrópolis, Brazil, leaving notes indicating despair at the future of European civilization. The manuscript of Zweig's autobiography ''The World of Yesterday'', posted to his publisher a day earlier, is first published in Stockholm later in the year as ''Die Welt von Gestern''. *March – Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Where There's A Will (novel)
''Where There's a Will'' is the eighth Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout. Prior to its publication in 1940 by Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., the novel was abridged in the May 1940 issue of ''The American Magazine'', titled "Sisters in Trouble." The story's magazine appearance was "reviewed" by the FBI as part of its surveillance of Stout. ''Where There's a Will'' was the last Wolfe novel published before World War II. Stout did not write any others during the war, resuming the series with ''The Silent Speaker'' in 1946; he did, however, continue to publish shorter works featuring the character. Plot summary The famous Hawthorne sisters — April, May and June — visit Nero Wolfe in a body to ask his help in averting a scandal. After the shock of their brother Noel's death three days before, they have been dealt another shock at learning the terms of his will. May, a college president, insists that Noel had promised to leave $1 million to her school; however, the will leaves each ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Over My Dead Body (novel)
''Over My Dead Body'' is the seventh Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout. The story first appeared in abridged form in ''The American Magazine'' (September 1939). The novel was published in 1940 by Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. Plot introduction In ''Over My Dead Body'' Rex Stout begins to explore Wolfe's Montenegrin background. By 1939, of course, the Wolfe/Goodwin books had become an established series but Wolfe's youth had yet to be clarified. Stout starts to do so in this book by bringing in a number of European visitors, including some from Montenegro; the backdrop is the maneuvers of the Axis and Allied powers to dominate Yugoslavia. In the first chapter Wolfe tells FBI Agent Stahl that he was born in the United States—a declaration at odds with all other references in the corpus. Stout's authorized biographer John McAleer explained the reason for the anomaly: Rex told me that even in 1939 Wolfe was irked by the FBI's consuming curiosity about the private business of law-ab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1940 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1940. Events *January – The English literary magazine '' Horizon'' first appears in London, with Cyril Connolly, Peter Watson and Stephen Spender contributing. *February – The Canadian writer Robertson Davies leaves the Old Vic repertory company in the U.K. *March 11 – Ed Ricketts, John Steinbeck and six others leave Monterey for the Gulf of California on a marine invertebrate collecting expedition. *April – Máirtín Ó Cadhain is interned by the Irish government at Curragh Camp, as a member of the Irish Republican Army. *May 14 – The Battle of the Netherlands ends with the surrender of the main Dutch forces to Nazi German invaders. This evening, the gay Dutch Jewish writer Jacob Hiegentlich takes poison, dying four days later aged 33. * June 5 – The English novelist J. B. Priestley broadcasts his first Sunday evening radio ''Postscript'', "An excursion to hell", on the BBC Home Ser ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Some Buried Caesar
''Some Buried Caesar'' is a detective novel by American writer Rex Stout, the sixth book featuring his character Nero Wolfe. The story first appeared in abridged form in ''The American Magazine'' (December 1938), under the title "The Red Bull", it was first published as a novel by Farrar & Rinehart in 1939. In 2000 it was included in the list of the ''100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century'' by the ''Independent Mystery Booksellers Association''. Plot introduction On the way to an agricultural fair north of Manhattan, Wolfe's car runs into a tree, stranding Wolfe and Archie at the home of the owner of a chain of fast-food cafés. A neighbor is later found gored to death; the authorities rule the death an accident but Wolfe deduces that it was murder. Lily Rowan, Archie's longtime girlfriend, makes her first appearance. This is one of several Wolfe plots that break one of Wolfe's cardinal rules, to never conduct business away from the Manhattan brownstone. It involves minor charact ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1939 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1939. Events *Early – The Pocket Books mass-market paperback imprint is launched in the United States. The first of the nationally distributed titles is James Hilton's ''Lost Horizon''. *January **American literary magazine ''The Kenyon Review'' is founded and edited by John Crowe Ransom. **The American pulp science fiction magazine '' Startling Stories'' appears, edited by Mort Weisinger. It includes '' The Black Flame'' by Stanley G. Weinbaum as lead novel. **Eando Binder's story " I, Robot" appears in the U.S. science fiction magazine ''Amazing Stories''. **'' The Criterion'', a British literary quarterly, is founded and edited by T. S. Eliot. **W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood set sail from England for the United States. *January/February – '' Poetry London: a Bi-Monthly of Modern Verse and Criticism'', founded and edited by Tambimuttu (with Dylan Thomas and others), is first pub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Too Many Cooks (novel)
''Too Many Cooks'' is the fifth Nero Wolfe detective novel by American mystery writer Rex Stout. The story was serialized in ''The American Magazine'' (March–August 1938) before its publication in book form in 1938 by Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. The novel was collected in the omnibus volume ''Kings Full of Aces,'' published in 1969 by the Viking Press. Plot introduction Wolfe, a knowledgeable gourmet as well as a detective, attends a meeting of great chefs, ''Les Quinze Maîtres'', at a resort in West Virginia, and jealousies among them soon lead to strife; then, one of the chefs is murdered. Wolfe sustains his own injury in the course of finding the culprit but also obtains the secret recipe for ''saucisse minuit''. Plot summary Nero Wolfe accepts an invitation to address ''Les Quinze Maîtres'' ("The Fifteen Masters"), an international group of master chefs, on the subject of American contributions to fine cuisine. The group is meeting at the Kanawha Spa resort in West Virgini ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
