Rex Stout Popular Books
Rex Stout Biography & Facts
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 41 novellas and short stories, 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 he sought to benefit authors by lobbying for reform of the domestic and international copyright laws, and served a term as president of the Mystery Writers of America in 1959. Biography Early life Stout was born in Noblesville, Indiana, in 1886, but shortly afterwards his Quaker parents John Wallace Stout and Lucetta Elizabeth Todhunter Stout moved their family (nine children in all) to Kansas. His father was a teacher who encouraged his son to read, leading to Rex having read the entire Bible twice by the age of four. At age thirteen he was the state spelling bee champion. Stout attended Topeka High School, Kansas, and the University of Kansas, Lawrence. His sister, Ruth Stout, also authored several books on no-work gardening and some social commentaries. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1906 to 1908 (including service as a yeoman on Theodore Roosevelt's presidential yacht) and then spent about the next four years working at a series of jobs in six states, including cigar-store clerk. In 1910–11, Stout sold three short poems to the literary magazine The Smart Set. Between 1912 and 1918, he published about forty works of fiction in various magazines, ranging from literary publications such as Smith's Magazine and Lippincott's Monthly Magazine to pulp magazines like the All-Story Weekly. Not his writing, but his invention of a school banking system in about 1916 gave him enough money to travel in Europe extensively. About 400 U.S. schools adopted his system for keeping track of the money that school children saved in accounts at school, and he was paid royalties. In 1916, Stout married Fay Kennedy of Topeka, Kansas. They divorced in February 1932: xx and, in December 1932, Stout married Pola Weinbach Hoffmann, a designer who had studied with Josef Hoffmann in Vienna.: 234–236 Writings Rex Stout began his literary career in the 1910s writing for magazines, particularly pulp magazines, writing more than 40 stories that appeared between 1912 and 1918. Stout's early stories appeared most frequently in All-Story Magazine and its affiliates, but he was also published in Smith's Magazine, Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, Short Stories, The Smart Set, Young's Magazine, and Golfers' Magazine. The early stories spanned genres including romance, adventure, science fiction/fantasy, and detective fiction, including two serialized murder mystery novellas that prefigured elements of the Wolfe stories. In 1916, Stout was tired of writing a story whenever he needed money. He decided to stop writing until he had made enough money to support himself through other means, so that he would be able to write when and as he pleased. He wrote no fiction for more than a decade, until the late 1920s, when he had saved substantial money through his school banking system. Ironically, just as Stout was starting to write fiction again, he lost most of the money that he had made as a businessman in the Great Depression of 1929. In 1929, Stout wrote his first published book How Like a God, an unusual psychological story written in the second person and published by the Vanguard Press, which he had helped to found. During this phase of his writing career, Stout also published a pioneering political thriller The President Vanishes (1934), which was originally published anonymously. In the 1930s, Stout turned to writing detective fiction. In 1933–34, he wrote Fer-de-Lance, which introduced Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin. The novel was published by Farrar & Rinehart in October 1934, and in abridged form as "Point of Death" in The American Magazine (November 1934). The characters of Wolfe and Goodwin are considered among Stout's main contributions to detective fiction. Wolfe was described by reviewer Will Cuppy as "that Falstaff of detectives".: 287 In 1937, Stout's novel The Hand in the Glove introduced the character of Theodolinda "Dol" Bonner, a female private detective who would appear in later Wolfe stories and who is an early and significant example of the woman PI as fictional protagonist. He also created two other detective protagonists, Tecumseh Fox and Alphabet Hicks. After 1938, Stout wrote no fiction but mysteries, and after 1940, almost entirely Nero Wolfe stories. Stout continued writing the Nero Wolfe series for the rest of his life, publishing at least one adventure per year through 1966 (with the exception of 1943, when he was busy with activities related to World War II). Stout's rate of production declined somewhat after 1966, but he still published four further Nero Wolfe novels prior to his death in 1975, at the age of 88. During World War II, Stout cut back on his detective writing, joined the Fight for Freedom organization, and wrote propaganda. He hosted three weekly radio shows and coordinated the volunteer services of American writers to help the war effort. After the war, Stout returned to writing Nero Wolfe novels and took up the role of gentleman farmer on his estate at High Meadow in Brewster, north of New York City. He served as president of the Authors Guild and of the Mystery Writers of America, which in 1959 presented Stout with the Grand Master Award – the pinnacle of achievement in the mystery field. Stout was a longtime friend of British humorist P. G. Wodehouse, writer of the Jeeves novels and short stories. Each was a fan of the other's work, and parallels are evident between their characters and techniques. Wodehouse contributed the foreword to Rex Stout: A Biography, John McAleer's Edgar Award-winning 1977 biography of the author (reissued in 2002 as Rex Stout: A Majesty's Life). Wodehouse also mentions Rex Stout in several of his Jeeves books, as both Bertie and his Aunt Dahlia are fans. Public activities In the fall of 1925, Roger Nash Baldwin appointed Rex Stout to the board of the American Civil Liberties Union's powerful National Council on Censorship; Stout served one term.: 196–197 Stout helped start the radical Marxist magazine The New Masses, whic.... Discover the Rex Stout popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Rex Stout books.
Best Seller Rex Stout Books of 2024
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Not Quite Dead Enough
Rex StoutThe army wants Nero Wolfe urgently, but he refuses their clarion call to duty. It takes Archie Goodwin to titillate Wolfe’s taste for crime with two malevolent morsels: a corpse th...
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Bad for Business
Rex StoutSomeone has been doctoring the gourmet appetizers at familyrun Tingley’s Titbits. And when old man Tingley meets a sudden end, suspicion falls on a gorgeous young detective whose f...
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The Second Confession
Rex StoutWhen a millionaire businessman hires Nero Wolfe to probe the background of his daughter’s boyfriend, it seems like just another case of an overprotective father. But when a powerfu...
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If Death Ever Slept
Rex StoutMurder lurks in the wings of the sprawling Fifth Avenue penthouse of multimillionaire Otis Jarrell, who has just retained the incomparable Nero Wolfe on a case of the utmost confid...
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Double for Death
Rex StoutTecumseh Fox has a sharp eye for solving murdersbut this time he’s seeing double. Fox has been hired by the headstrong niece of a man charged in the shooting of wealthy financier R...
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The Red Box
Rex StoutA lovely woman is dead, and the fortunes of overextended theatrical producer Llewellyn Frost depend on solving the mystery of the red box: two pounds of candied fruits, nuts and cr...
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The Final Deduction
Rex StoutWhen highsociety kidnapping unexpectedly turns to very seamy murder, all concerned turn to the great detective, Nero Wolfe, for the missing piece in the puzzle.A missing typewriter...
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The Silent Speaker
Rex StoutWhen a powerful government official, scheduled to speak to a group of millionaires, turns up dead, it is an event worthy of the notice of the great Nero Wolfe. Balancing on the edg...
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Trio for Blunt Instruments
Rex StoutIf Nero Wolfe and his sidekick, Archie, would ever admit to an Achilles' heelwhich they wouldn'tit would be a weakness for damsels in distress. In these three charming chillers the...
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Archie Meets Nero Wolfe
Robert GoldsboroughAn “excellent” novel that goes back to 1920s New York to reveal how the famed detective first met his incomparable sidekick (Publishers Weekly, starred review). In 1930, young Arch...
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Triple Jeopardy
Rex StoutDon’t tempt Nero Wolfe to find the culprit. When foul play’s the game, he always winsand in these three crime puzzles, the stakes are high. Home to RoostSomebody at the dinne...
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Champagne for One
Rex StoutFaith Usher had a decidedly morbid personality. She talked about taking her life, and kept cyanide in her purse. So when she collapses and dies from a lethal champagne cocktail in ...
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Over My Dead Body
Rex StoutWhen a Balkan beauty gets in trouble over some missing diamonds, whom else can she turn to but the worldfamous Nero Wolfe? Especially since she claims to be Wolfe's long...
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And Four to Go
Rex Stout“It is always a treat to read a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore.”The New York Times Book Review Embark on a year of murder and mystery. It begins at Christmas ...
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Family Affair
Rex StoutWhat could make Nero Wolfe so determined to solve a crime that he would be willing to work entirely without fee or client? What would it take to put him, for the first time, at a l...
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Black Orchids
Rex StoutNero Wolfe has left his comfortable brownstone for the promise of a remarkably rare black orchid at a flower showbut before Wolfe and his perennially hardy sidekick, Archie Goodwin...
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In the Best Families
Rex StoutThe aging millionairess has a problem: where is her young playboy husband getting all his money? To help find the answer, Archie infiltrates a party at her palatial estate. But her...
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Murder by the Book
Rex Stout“It is always a treat to read a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore.”The New York Times Book ReviewIntroduction by David HandlerIt wasn’t Leonard Dykes’s writing s...
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The Golden Spiders
Rex StoutNero Wolfe was almost as famous for his wealthy clients and extravagant fees as for his genius at detection. So why has he accepted a case for $4.30? And why have the last two peop...
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Some Buried Caesar
Rex StoutAn automobile breakdown strands Nero Wolfe and Archie in the middle of a private pastureand a family feud over a prize bull. A restaurateur’s plan to buy the stud and barbecue it a...
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Red Threads
Rex StoutVal Carew had come a long wayfrom Oklahoma to Wall Streetonly to be clubbed to death at his wife’s tomb. The wealthy financier had built the magnificent crypt in memory of his beau...
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Too Many Cooks
Rex StoutAs Nero Wolfe prepares to speak at a gathering of the world’s great chefs, one is found indelicately murdered. When the target for killing shifts to himself, the great detective mu...
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Please Pass The Guilt
Rex StoutA brilliant Rex Stout murder mystery featuring Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin A bomb explodes in the desk drawer of a top TV executive. Was it intended for him or the man who...
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Trouble in Triplicate
Rex StoutThey all thought they were about to die . . . and they were right. Dazy Perrit was an underworld kingpin until a hail of bullets sent him into early retirement. Ben Jensen was a we...
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Death of a Dude
Rex StoutThe mountain couldn’t come to Wolfe, so the great detective came to the mountainto Lame Horse, Montana, to be exact. Here a city slicker got a country girl pregnant and then took a...
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Might As Well Be Dead
Rex Stout“It is always a treat to read a Nero Wolfe mystery. The man has entered our folklore.”The New York Times Book Review Eleven years ago, wealthy Nebraska businessman James Herold gav...
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A Right to Die
Rex StoutWhen a bright young heiress with a flair for romance and one too many enemies is found brutally murdered, Nero Wolfe and his sidekick, Archie, find themselves embroiled in a case t...
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How Like A God
Rex StoutSTAIRWAY TO HOMICIDEUnpublished for more than 50 years, HOW LIKE A GOD is the earliest masterpiece by an author who would later be named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of Am...
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The League of Frightened Men
Rex StoutPaul Chapin’s college cronies never quite forgave themselves for instigating the tragic prank that left their friend a twisted cripple. Yet with their hazing days at Harvard far be...
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Turn on the Heat
Erle Stanley GardnerA CLASSIC COOL AND LAM NOVEL FROM THE CREATOR OF PERRY MASON, ERLE STANLEY GARDNERHBO series Perry Mason airs June 2020 starring Matthew Rhys in the titular role.Erle Sta...
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Curtains for Three
Rex StoutIn these three baffling mysteries of motive and murder, even the great Nero Wolfe finds himself stumped. First there is the case of the two passionate lovebirds who want to make su...
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Before Midnight
Rex StoutThe scent of murder is in the air at the great Pour Amour perfume contest, and the incomparable Nero Wolfe is intent on sniffing out the killer. The foul deed is committed during t...
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And Be a Villain
Rex StoutMadeline Fraser, radio talk show host extraordinaire, had a natural dread of dead air. So when one of her onair guests signed off at the mike after drinking a glass of a sponsor’s ...
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Idyll Threats
Stephanie GayleIn the summer of 1997, Thomas Lynch arrives as the new chief of police in Idyll, Connecticuta town where serious crimes can be counted on one hand. So no one is prepared when Cecil...
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The Father Hunt
Rex StoutAll pretty Amy Denovo wants to find the father she has never seen, but she can’t afford Nero Wolfe’s outlandish fees . . . or can she? Suddenly she’s knocking on the oversized dete...
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Homicide Trinity
Rex StoutIt’s a wily killer who dares to strike on Nero Wolfe’s hallowed turfand leave a corpse strangled with Wolfe’s own soupstained tie. But no sooner does the gourmandizing sleuth clean...
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Idyll Hands
Stephanie GayleIn the small, sleepy town of Idyll, Connecticut, Police Chief Thomas Lynch assists police officer Michael Finnegan to uncover clues to his sister's disappearance two decades ago. C...
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Fer-de-Lance
Rex StoutAs any herpetologist will tell you, the ferdelance is among the most dreaded snakes known to man. When someone makes a present of one to Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin knows...
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The Hand in the Glove
Rex StoutWealthy industrialist P. L. Storrs has never approved of lady detectives, and he normally would not have made an exception of Theodolina "Dol" Bonner. But faced with a very delicat...
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Death Times Three
Rex StoutMurder strikes thrice in these three baffling mysteries of crime and detection.First, Rex Stout’s great detective, Nero Wolfe, develops an appetite for the sweet taste of revenge w...
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Three Men Out
Rex StoutThe legendary Nero Wolfe finds himself deep in foul territory in these three baffling cases of murder and mayhem. In the first, some sharp questions about a poisoning come to an ab...
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Three for the Chair
Rex StoutFollow the world’s greatest detective, Nero Wolfe, on a trail of money, mayhem, and murder in three cases of capital crime.The trail of bodies begins with the death of a selfmade m...
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The Rubber Band
Rex Stout“Nero Wolfe towers over his rivals. . . . He is an exceptional character creation.”New YorkerWhat do a Wild West lynching and a respected English nobleman have in common? On the su...