Rex Stout (1886–1975)
Author of Fer-de-Lance
About the Author
Author Rex Stout was born on December 1, 1886. A child prodigy with a gift for mathematics, Stout drifted as he became an adult, holding odd jobs in many places---cook, cabinetmaker, bellhop, hotel manager, salesman, bookkeeper, and even a guide in a pueblo. But his true talent lay in storytelling; show more he sold his first story, about William Howard Taft, in 1912. His most famous creation is Nero Wolfe, a 286-pound detective genius who, with sidekick Archie Goodwin, can often solve a case without leaving his room. It is the way in which the puzzle is solved that intrigues Nero Wolfe, who is much like Sherlock Holmes in his ability to use deductive reasoning. More than 60 million copies (in 24 languages) of Stout's books have been sold. Stout writes quickly, drawing upon a lifetime of impressions. He neither uses an outline nor revises; he lets his characters take over as the story develops. The classy, erudite Nero Wolfe presents for readers an alternative to the hard-boiled branch of the genre. He died on October 27, 1975 (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Rex Stout
Three Trumps, A Nero Wolfe Omnibus: The Black Mountain / If Death Ever Slept / Before Midnight (1973) 110 copies, 2 reviews
Obras selectas, tomo 3. La segunda confesión ; Orquídeas negras ; Trío de asesinatos (1984) 12 copies
Forest fire 8 copies
Before Nero Wolfe (Annotated and Illustrated): Justice Ends at Home and The Last Drive (Kindle) (2019) 6 copies, 1 review
Home to Roost 6 copies
Jedermanns Bombe - Kennzeichen wilde Rose - Tödliche Zigarren: Drei Nero Wolfe Krimis zur Fernsehserie in einem Band (1991) 5 copies
The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe: The Case of the Midnight Ride and Other Tales [With Earbuds] (Playaway Adult Fiction) (2005) 4 copies
His Own Hand 4 copies
Nero & Archie Incorporated 4 copies
Nero Wolfe e l'invulnerabile 3 copies
Rex Stout Mystery Quarterly, #1 3 copies
Nero Wolf: Natale di morte 3 copies
Nero Wolfe vince la partita 3 copies
Nient'altro che la verità 2 copies
Rex Stout, Nero Wolfe, 3 books hardcover with jacket, Three at Wolfe's door, Death of a Dude, Too Many Clients (1960) 2 copies
Rex Stout Mystery Monthly, #6 2 copies
La pistola scomparsa 1 copy
Chapagne per uno 1 copy
Nero Wolfe E Il Suo Cadavere 1 copy
Accoppiata per Nero Wolfe 1 copy
Assassinio Indiretto 1 copy
Come volevasi dimostrare 1 copy
TROUBLE IN TRIPLICATE 1 copy
Novelas escogidas. Tomo I 1 copy
Det röda skrinet 1 copy
Theo Drake 1 copy
Novelas 1 1 copy
Kolm seiklust 1 copy
Nero Wolf fa la spia 1 copy
Nero Wolf e il caso Fyfe 1 copy
Nero Wolf discolpati 1 copy
Nero Wolfe Difenditi! 1 copy
Mitte veel piisavalt surnud 1 copy
Mustad orhideed 1 copy
Three at Wolfe's Door (Nero Wolfe): Poison a la Carte, Method Three for Murder, The Rodeo Murder 1 copy
Tome 1: Les années 1930 - 1939 : Fer de lance - Les compagnons de la peur - La bande élastique - La cassette rouge (1996) 1 copy
Ullstein-Kriminalmagazin 1 1 copy
A Cadeia de Crimes 1 copy
Under the Banner of Heaven 1 copy
Delitti in vacanza 1 copy
Novelas escogidas Tomo II 1 copy
Livsfarlig ingång 1 copy
Nero Wolfe Collection 1 copy
Nero Wolfes bomb 1 copy
The poisened needle 1 copy
Mystery Trilogy 1 copy
Rex Stout Mystery Magazine — Editor — 1 copy
Stout Rex 1 copy
Rose Orchid 1 copy
Golden Remedy 1 copy
For Tomorrow We Die 1 copy
Grim Fairy Tales 1 copy
Gun Puzzle 1 copy
ROMANZI 1 copy
O Careless Love 1 copy
Sensationelle opskrifter 1 copy
Tungviktare sökes 1 copy
TRINDADE HOMICIDA 1 copy
Černé orchideje 1 copy
TRÊS CASOS DE ASSSSÍNIO 1 copy
CRIMES EM SÉRIE 1 copy
O CULPADO QUE SE APRESENTE 1 copy
CRIME NO CLUBE DE XADREZ 1 copy
A MILIONÁRIA PERSEGUIDA 1 copy
O DIREITO DE MORRER 1 copy
CRIMES IMPERFEITOS 1 copy
La mano en el guante 1 copy
Ein Zeuge verstummt 1 copy
Nyomoz az FBI 1 copy
Zu viele Köche 1 copy
HOMICÍDIO NAS TERMAS 1 copy
La moglie perduta — Author — 1 copy
In viaggio con Nero Wolfe. Tre romanzi. La guardia al toro, Nero Wolfe fa la spia, Nero Wolfe e il caso dei mirtilli (2003) 1 copy
The red wool thread 1 copy
unknown number and titles 1 copy
Toque de campainha, Um 1 copy
Nero Wolfe Omnibus, The 1 copy
In vacanza con l'assassino 1 copy
Un roman a tué 1 copy
Plagiat 1 copy
Associated Works
Great Detectives: A Century of the Best Mysteries from England and America (1984) — Contributor — 406 copies, 4 reviews
Murder on the Menu: Cordon Bleu Stories of Crime and Mystery, Volume 1 (1984) — Contributor — 213 copies, 2 reviews
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories to Be Read with the Door Locked (1975) — Contributor — 188 copies, 4 reviews
Nero Wolfe: The Complete Classic Whodunit Series [videorecording] (2006) — Original book — 42 copies
Murder on the Menu: Cordon Bleu Stories of Crime and Mystery, Volume 2 (1993) — Contributor — 20 copies
The Case of the Black-Eyed Blonde | Death Comes as the End | Not Quite Dead Enough (1944) — Contributor — 9 copies
Great Mystery Books, 10 Volumes (Journey into Fear, The 39 Steps, And Then There Were None, Maltese Falcon, The Nine Tailors, The Doorbell Rang, The Confidential Agent, The Big… (1967) — Contributor — 6 copies
Crimes and Misfortunes: The Anthony Boucher Memorial Anthology of Mysteries — Contributor — 5 copies
Too Many Women | Night Walk | Draw the Curtain Close — Contributor — 4 copies
Detective-verhalen — Contributor — 3 copies
RDCBLP v081 Cordially Invited to Meet Death | Roommates: My Grandfather's Story | The Day We Almost Didn't Go (1995) 1 copy
The Dark Eyes of London | The Eight of Swords | The Iron Gates | The Second Confession | The Tragedy of Y (1965) — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Stout, Rex Todhunter
- Birthdate
- 1886-12-01
- Date of death
- 1975-10-27
- Gender
- male
- Education
- University of Kansas, Lawrence
- Occupations
- bookkeeper
sight-seeing guide
bookstore salesman
stablehand
hotel manager
detective novelist - Organizations
- Authors Guild
Mystery Writers of America
United States Navy
American Civil Liberties Union
Vanguard Press - Awards and honors
- MWA Grand Master (1959)
Archie Goodwin Award (2005) - Relationships
- Stout, Ruth (sister)
Wodehouse, P. G. (friend) - Short biography
- After leaving the Navy in 1908, he became an itinerant bookkeeper and then worked as a sight-seeing guide, bookstore salesman, stablehand and hotel manager. Later he devised and implemented a school banking system which was installed in four hundred cities and towns throughout the country. In 1927 he retired from the world of finance and began writing. In 1941 he became chairman of the Writer's War Board, and in 1943 he was elected president of the Authors Guild. He was married to wife, Pola.
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Noblesville, Indiana, USA
- Places of residence
- Noblesville, Indiana, USA (Birth)
Wakarusa, Kansas, USA
Paris, Île-de-France, France
Danbury, Connecticut, USA - Place of death
- Danbury, Connecticut, USA
- Burial location
- cremated
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Discussions
Some Buried Caesar - Spoilers in The Black Orchid (A Nero Wolfe Group) (March 2021)
Reviews
This is one of the earliest Wolfe books that truly feels like a Wolfe book, and that definitely factors in to my rating. Honestly, this isn't a perfect book. Like most of the early corpus, the sexism pretty much shrieks off the page here, and neither Archie nor Wolfe comes out looking like an untarnished hero (but then, that is not the point of either character, and especially not of Wolfe).
But. But. There's some solid Wolfe-Archie interplay, Cramer plays a fairly substantial role, and we show more get to see Saul Panzer actually failing at something, which is a once in a blue moon experience. This also has one of my favorite female characters in the series: Nancylee Shepherd, the ultimate teenaged fangirl. She's smart, almost smart enough to defeat Wolfe, and she's fun, fierce, and loyal as hell. I love her, and every time I finish this book I spend some time wondering who she grew up to be. (I do hate that Wolfe pries a secret out of her by threatening to tell her father.)
Overall, a good read and a solid entry in the series.
(Ebook note: my copy wasn't, apparently, actually edited, because half the mentions of a character named Tully call him Hilly instead, which I enjoyed. It was like a glance into a sex-inverted Wolfe universe. But, uh, buy this ebook with caution if you care about spelling errors.) show less
But. But. There's some solid Wolfe-Archie interplay, Cramer plays a fairly substantial role, and we show more get to see Saul Panzer actually failing at something, which is a once in a blue moon experience. This also has one of my favorite female characters in the series: Nancylee Shepherd, the ultimate teenaged fangirl. She's smart, almost smart enough to defeat Wolfe, and she's fun, fierce, and loyal as hell. I love her, and every time I finish this book I spend some time wondering who she grew up to be. (I do hate that Wolfe pries a secret out of her by threatening to tell her father.)
Overall, a good read and a solid entry in the series.
(Ebook note: my copy wasn't, apparently, actually edited, because half the mentions of a character named Tully call him Hilly instead, which I enjoyed. It was like a glance into a sex-inverted Wolfe universe. But, uh, buy this ebook with caution if you care about spelling errors.) show less
This was always one of my favorite Nero Wolfe's, for a couple of reasons. First, the big man had to actually leave his home and travel, via car AND plane, around 2,000 miles to a ranch where he endured massive discomfort. True sign that his affection for Archie, despite his protests to the contrary, really does know no bounds.
Stout also introduced a character that I found nearly as fun as the famous Julie Jaquette. Woody owns a building that houses the town's only movie theater (open on show more Saturday evenings), dance hall (open after the movie ends) and museum of curiosities. Wolfe found him interesting and so did I.
On a side note, I've been re-reading some of the older mysteries that enthralled me as a girl, to see how they have held up through the years, and if they can still stand proud (the one Ellery Queen - written in the thirties, I recall - I found was unable to pass any kind of moral or ethical test, with casual sexism and racism abounding.) I am so pleased that even today, Rex Stout's mysteries shine as examples of what human reaction/behavior should be.
"Woody asked him what they would regard as a greater sentence and Wolfe said, 'I could suggest a dozen or more, but the most likely one is also displayed on your wall.' He pointed to the Declaration of Independence. 'All men are created equal.'"
My hero. show less
Stout also introduced a character that I found nearly as fun as the famous Julie Jaquette. Woody owns a building that houses the town's only movie theater (open on show more Saturday evenings), dance hall (open after the movie ends) and museum of curiosities. Wolfe found him interesting and so did I.
On a side note, I've been re-reading some of the older mysteries that enthralled me as a girl, to see how they have held up through the years, and if they can still stand proud (the one Ellery Queen - written in the thirties, I recall - I found was unable to pass any kind of moral or ethical test, with casual sexism and racism abounding.) I am so pleased that even today, Rex Stout's mysteries shine as examples of what human reaction/behavior should be.
"Woody asked him what they would regard as a greater sentence and Wolfe said, 'I could suggest a dozen or more, but the most likely one is also displayed on your wall.' He pointed to the Declaration of Independence. 'All men are created equal.'"
My hero. show less
Yes, there’s a mystery, and yes, there are great characters here, and yes, there’s a fascinating lecture on North American cuisine. There is excellent Wolfe and Archie interaction, including a scene where Archie undresses Wolfe while comparing himself to the heroine of a gothic novel. But this is all not so much overshadowed as obliviated by the racism.
If you’re interested in how Nice White Liberals thought in the 1930s, this is the book for you. Stout was certainly a white liberal, show more and he definitely tried to be ... not horrible in this book, but oh my god how he failed. And at the end of the day, I read these books for Wolfe and Archie. I want to be able to like them, and I absolutely cannot do that when Archie is being hideously racist. So, as always, I’m rating this for the amount of fun I had reading it, which was essentially no fun at all. I was too busy recoiling. show less
If you’re interested in how Nice White Liberals thought in the 1930s, this is the book for you. Stout was certainly a white liberal, show more and he definitely tried to be ... not horrible in this book, but oh my god how he failed. And at the end of the day, I read these books for Wolfe and Archie. I want to be able to like them, and I absolutely cannot do that when Archie is being hideously racist. So, as always, I’m rating this for the amount of fun I had reading it, which was essentially no fun at all. I was too busy recoiling. show less
It was the first time I had ever seen the top mackaroo of United States Army Intelligence. He was in uniform and had two chins and a pair of eyes that wasted neither time nor space. I was perfectly willing to shake hands, but he just said to sit down, glanced at a paper on top of a pile and told me in a dry brittle voice that my name was Archie Goodwin. I nodded noncommittal. For all I knew it was a military secret.
He inquired acidly, "What the hell is the matter with Nero Wolfe?"
He inquired acidly, "What the hell is the matter with Nero Wolfe?"
Lists
Witch Hunts (1)
Finished in 2019 (1)
1930s (1)
Favorite Series (1)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 376
- Also by
- 58
- Members
- 50,320
- Popularity
- #303
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 1,188
- ISBNs
- 1,378
- Languages
- 20
- Favorited
- 193
