Rex Stout | |
|---|---|
 Rex Stout onOur Secret Weapon (December 1942) | |
| Born | Rex Todhunter Stout (1886-12-01)December 1, 1886 Noblesville, Indiana, United States |
| Died | October 27, 1975(1975-10-27) (aged 88) Danbury, Connecticut, United States |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Genre | Detective fiction |
| Notable works | Nero Wolfe corpus 1934–1975 |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Military career | |
| Branch |  United States Navy |
| Years of service | 1906–1908 |
Rex Todhunter Stout (/staʊt/; December 1, 1886 – October 27, 1975) was an American writer noted for hisdetective fiction. His best-known characters are the detectiveNero Wolfe and his assistantArchie Goodwin, who were featured in 33 novels and 39 novellas or short stories between 1934 and 1975.
In 1959, Stout received theMystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award. The Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated Best Mystery Series of the Century atBouchercon XXXI, the world's largest mystery convention, and Rex Stout was nominated as 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 theAmerican Civil Liberties Union and a founder of theVanguard Press. He served as head of theWriters' War Board during World War II, became a radio celebrity through his numerous broadcasts, and was later active in promotingworld federalism. He was the long-time president of theAuthors Guild and sought to benefit authors by lobbying for improvement of authors' rights under thecopyright laws. He also served a term as president of theMystery Writers of America in 1958.
Stout was born inNoblesville, Indiana, in 1886, but shortly afterwards hisQuaker parents John Wallace Stout and Lucetta Elizabeth Todhunter Stout moved their family (nine children in all) toKansas.
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 statespelling bee champion. Stout attendedTopeka High School, Kansas, and theUniversity of Kansas, Lawrence. His sister,Ruth Stout, also authored several books on no-work gardening and some social commentaries.
He served in theU.S. Navy from 1906 to 1908 (including service as ayeoman onTheodore 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 magazineThe Smart Set. Between 1912 and 1918, he published more than forty works of fiction in various magazines, ranging from literary publications such asSmith's Magazine andLippincott's Monthly Magazine to pulp magazines like theAll-Story Weekly.
Stout invented a school banking system around 1916, which he promoted with his brother Robert. About 400 U.S. schools adopted his system for keeping track of the money that school children saved in accounts at school. Royalties from this work provided Stout with enough money to travel in Europe extensively during the 1920s.
In 1916, Stout married Fay Kennedy ofTopeka, Kansas. They divorced in February 1932[1]: xx and, in December 1932, Stout marriedPola Weinbach Hoffmann, a designer who had studied withJosef Hoffmann inVienna.[2]: 234–236 [a][b]
Rex Stout began his literary career in the 1910s writing for magazines, particularlypulp magazines, writing more than 40 stories that appeared between 1912 and 1918. Stout's early stories appeared most frequently inAll-Story Magazine and its affiliates, but he was also published in magazines as varied asSmith's Magazine,Lippincott's Monthly Magazine,Short Stories,The Smart Set,Young's Magazine, andGolfers Magazine. The early stories spanned genres including romance, adventure, science fiction/fantasy, and detective fiction, including two murder mystery novellas ("Justice Ends at Home" andThe Last Drive) that prefigured elements of the Wolfe stories.
By 1916, Stout grew 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 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 theGreat Depression of 1929.
In 1929, Stout wrote his first published book,How Like a God, an unusual psychological story written in the second person. The novel was published by theVanguard Press, which he had helped to found. Stout published a total of four psychological novels between 1929 and 1933, the first three with Vanguard and the fourth atFarrar & Rinehart, to which he was recruited by editorJohn C. Farrar.
In the 1930s, Stout turned to writing detective fiction, a genre that he and Farrar thought might be more financially rewarding than his previous novels. In 1933, he wroteFer-de-Lance, which introducedNero Wolfe and his assistantArchie Goodwin. The novel was published by Farrar & Rinehart in October 1934, and in abridged form as "Point of Death" inThe American Magazine (November 1934). The same year, Stout also published a political thrillerThe President Vanishes (1934), which was originally published anonymously.
Fer-de-Lance was the first of 72 Nero Wolfe stories (33 novels and 39 novellas) that Stout published from 1934 to 1975. Stout continued writing the Nero Wolfe series for the rest of his life. Beginning in 1940, Nero Wolfe began to appear in novellas as well as full-length novels, at the behest of his editors atThe American Magazine. Stout wrote at least one Nero Wolfe story every year through 1966 (except in 1943, when war-related activities took priority). 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.
The characters of Wolfe and Goodwin are considered among Stout's main contributions to detective fiction. Wolfe was described by reviewerWill Cuppy as "thatFalstaff of detectives".[2]: 287 [5][c]
Stout also wrote several non-Wolfe mystery novels during the 1930s, but none approached the success of the Nero Wolfe books. In 1937, Stout's novelThe Hand in the Glove introduced the character of Theodolinda "Dol" Bonner, a female private detective who is an early and significant example of the female PI as fictional protagonist. Bonner would also appear as a character in some later Nero Wolfe stories. Stout also created two other detective protagonists,Tecumseh Fox (who appeared in three books) andAlphabet Hicks (one book). His novelRed Threads featuredInspector Cramer, a familiar character from the Wolfe books, working on his own. After 1938, Stout wrote no fiction but mysteries, and after 1941, almost entirely Nero Wolfe stories.
During World War II, Stout cut back on his detective writing to focus on war-related activities. For four years, he chaired theWriters' War Board, which coordinated the volunteer services of American writers to help the war effort. He also joined the Fight for Freedom organization and hosted three weekly radio shows. After the war, in addition to continuing to write the Nero Wolfe books, Stout supported democracy and world government. He served as president of theAuthors Guild and of theMystery 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 humoristP. G. Wodehouse, writer of theJeeves 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 toRex Stout: A Biography, John McAleer'sEdgar Award-winning 1977 biography of the author (reissued in 2002 asRex 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.
In the fall of 1925,Roger Nash Baldwin appointed Rex Stout to the board of theAmerican Civil Liberties Union's powerful National Council on Censorship; Stout served one term.[2]: 196–197 Stout helped start the radical Marxist magazineThe New Masses, which succeededThe Masses andThe Liberator in 1926.[6] He had been told that the magazine was primarily committed to bringing arts and letters to the masses, but he realized after a few issues "that it was Communist and intended to stay Communist", and he ended his association with it.[2]: 197–198
Stout was one of the officers and directors of theVanguard Press, a publishing house established with a grant from theGarland Fund to reprint left-wing classics at an affordable cost and publish new books otherwise deemed "unpublishable" by the commercial press of the day. He served as Vanguard's first president from 1926 to 1928, and continued as vice president until at least 1931. During his tenure, Vanguard issued 150 titles, including seven books byScott Nearing and three of Stout's own novels—How Like a God (1929),Seed on the Wind (1930), andGolden Remedy (1931).[2]: 196–197
In 1942, Stout described himself as a "pro-Labor, pro-New Deal, pro-Roosevelt left liberal".[7]
DuringWorld War II, he worked with the advocacy group Friends of Democracy, chaired theWriters' War Board (a propaganda organization), and supported theembryonic United Nations. He lobbied forFranklin D. Roosevelt to accept a fourth term as president. He developed an extreme anti-German attitude and wrote the provocative essay "We Shall Hate, or We Shall Fail"[8] which generated a flood of protests after its January 1943 publication inThe New York Times.[1]: 95 The attitude is expressed by Nero Wolfe in the 1942 novella "Not Quite Dead Enough".
On August 9, 1942, Stout conducted the first of 62 wartime broadcasts ofOur Secret Weapon onCBS Radio. The idea for the counterpropaganda series had been that of Sue Taylor White, wife ofPaul White, the first director ofCBS News. Research was done under White's direction. "Hundreds of Axis propaganda broadcasts, beamed not merely to the Allied countries but to neutrals, were sifted weekly", wrote Stout's biographer John McAleer. "Rex himself, for an average of twenty hours a week, pored over the typewritten yellow sheets of accumulated data ... Then, using a dialogue format – Axis commentators making their assertions, and Rex Stout, the lie detective, offering his refutations – he dictated to his secretary the script of the fifteen-minute broadcast." By November 1942, Berlin Radio was reporting that "Rex Stout himself has cut his own production in detective stories from four to one a year and is devoting the entire balance of his time to writing official war propaganda."Newsweek described Stout as "stripping Axis short-wave propaganda down to the barest nonsensicals ... There's no doubt of its success."[1]: 121–122 [2]: 305–307
In September 1942, Stout defended FDR's policy of sending Japanese-Americans to concentration camps in a debate with the Socialist civil libertarianNorman Thomas. Stout charged "that Japanese-Americans include more fifth columnists than any other comparable group in the United States." When Thomas condemned the military's role as a "disgrace to our democracy" and comparable to "the powers of totalitarian dictators," Stout responded that moving "Japanese-Americans inland hardly constitutes Totalitarianism.".[9]
During the later part of the war and the post-war period, he also led theSociety for the Prevention of World War III which lobbied for a harsh peace for Germany. When the war ended, Stout became active in theUnited World Federalists.[10]
House Committee on Un-American Activities chairmanMartin Dies called him a Communist, and Stout is reputed to have said to him, "I hate Communists as much as you do, Martin, but there's one difference between us. I know what a Communist is and you don't."[11]
Stout was one of many American writers closely watched byJ. Edgar Hoover's FBI. Hoover considered him an enemy of the bureau and either a Communist or a tool of Communist-dominated groups. Stout's leadership of theAuthors League of America during theMcCarthy era was particularly irksome to the FBI. About a third of Stout's FBI file is devoted to his 1965 novelThe Doorbell Rang.[12]: 216–217, 227 [d][e]
In later years, Stout alienated some readers[specify] with his hawkish stance on theVietnam War and with the contempt forcommunism expressed in certain of his works. The latter viewpoint is given voice in the 1952 novella "Home to Roost" (first published as "Nero Wolfe and the Communist Killer") and most notably in the 1949 novelThe Second Confession. In this work, Archie and Wolfe express their dislike for "Commies", while at the same time Wolfe arranges for the firing of a virulently anti-Communist broadcaster, likening him to Hitler and Mussolini.
Stout continued writing until just before his death. He died on October 27, 1975, at the age of 88 at his estate, High Meadow, on the New York/Connecticut border.[14]
If he had done nothing more than to create Archie Goodwin, Rex Stout would deserve the gratitude of whatever assessors watch over the prosperity of American literature. For surely Archie is one of the folk heroes in which the modern American temper can see itself transfigured.
"A number of the paintings ofRené Magritte (1898–1967), the internationally famous Belgian painter, are named after titles of books by Rex Stout," wrote Harry Torczyner, Magritte's attorney and friend.[2]: 578 [g][h] "He read Hegel, Heidegger and Sartre, as well asDashiell Hammett, Rex Stout andGeorges Simenon," theTimes Higher Education Supplement wrote of Magritte. "Some of his best titles were 'found' in this way."[20] Magritte's 1942 paintingLes compagnons de la peur ("The Companions of Fear") bears the title given toThe League of Frightened Men (1935) when it was published in France byGallimard (1939). It is one of Magritte's series of "leaf-bird" paintings, created during the Nazi occupation of Brussels. It depicts a stormy, mountainous landscape in which a cluster of plants has metamorphosed into a group of vigilant owls.[21]
Stout is also mentioned in Ian Fleming's James Bond bookOn Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963).[citation needed]
The archival papers of Rex Stout anchorBoston College's collection of American detective fiction.[22] The Rex Stout papers were donated to theBurns Library by the Stout family in 1980 and includes manuscripts, correspondence, legal papers, personal papers, publishing contracts, photographs, and ephemera.[23] The collection also includes first editions, international editions, and archived reprints of Stout's books, as well as volumes from Stout's personal library.[23]
The comprehensive archive at Burns Library also includes the extensive research files of Stout's official biographer John J. McAleer,[24] the Rex Stout collection of bibliographer Judson C. Sapp,[25] and a collection of Nero Wolfe's magazine appearances donated by Ed Price.[26][22]
| Date | Network | Length | Series | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 28, 1939 | NBC | 30 min. | Information Please | Cast:Clifton Fadiman (host),John Kieran,Franklin P. Adams,Heywood Broun, Rex Stout[27]: 155 |
| March 28, 1939 | NBC | 30 min. | Information Please | Cast: Clifton Fadiman (host), John Kieran, Franklin P. Adams, Rex Stout, Moss Hart[28] |
| August 29, 1939 | NBC | 30 min. | Information Please | Cast: Clifton Fadiman (host), John Kieran, Franklin P. Adams, Rex Stout,Wilfred J. Funk[28] |
| September 26, 1939 | NBC | 30 min. | Information Please | Cast: Clifton Fadiman (host), John Kieran, Franklin P. Adams, Rex Stout,Carl Van Doren[28] |
| September 27, 1940 | Democratic Women's Day | Radio address from a dinner sponsored by the Women's National Democratic Club[29] Speakers:Eleanor Roosevelt,Thornton Wilder,Robert Sherwood,Edna Ferber, Rex Stout,Alice Duer Miller, Dr. Frank Kingdon,Katharine Hepburn,Marc Connelly,Elmer Rice,Frank Sullivan, Henry Curren[30] | ||
| April 17, 1941 | NBC | 15 min. | Speaking of Liberty | Stories of memorable events in the lives of America's founders[31]: 373 First of an estimated 29 weekly broadcasts continuing through December 11, 1941, produced in cooperation with the Council for Democracy Guests includeLouis Adamic,Herbert Agar,Pearl S. Buck,Erskine Caldwell,Carl Carmer,Stuart Chase,Frank Craven,Carl Crow,Ève Curie,Max Eastman,Edward Ellsberg, Clifton Fadiman,Louis Fischer,Dorothy Canfield Fisher,Frank Gervasi,Florence Jaffray Harriman,Fannie Hurst,Margaret Leech,Walter Millis,Bertrand Russell,John R. Tunis, Carl Van Doren,Pierre van Paassen, Thornton Wilder,Alexander Woollcott,Lin Yutang Cast: Rex Stout (host), Milton Cross and others (announcers)[32][33] |
| April 18, 1941 | NBC | 30 min. | Information Please | Cast: Clifton Fadiman (host), John Kieran, Franklin P. Adams, Rex Stout, Henry H. Curran (chief magistrate of Manhattan)[28] |
| September 26, 1941 | NBC | 30 min. | Speaking of Books | Discussion ofJan Valtin'sOut of the Night, from the 51st annual conference of theNew York Library Association Cast:Irita Van Doren,Lewis Gannett, Rex Stout, Jan Valtin[2]: 291–292 [34] |
| January 1942 | CBS | 30 min. | Invitation to Learning | Discussion ofThe Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Cast:Mark Van Doren (moderator), Rex Stout,Jacques Barzun,Elmer Davis[i][1]: 121 [2]: 298 |
| April 5, 1942 | Blue | 15 min. | Behind the Mike | Stout is interviewed by hostGraham McNamee[36] |
| April 8, 1942 | WMCA | 15 min. | The Voice of Freedom | Broadcasting anonymously, Stout inaugurates this weekly commentary series presented byFreedom House[37][38][39] "Program packs plenty of punch … handled expertly by 'Mister X'" (Billboard) |
| August 9, 1942 | CBS | 15 min. | Our Secret Weapon | Counterpropaganda series in which "lie detective" Stout rebuts the most entertainingAxis shortwave lies of the week First of 62 weekly broadcasts continuing through October 8, 1943, produced byPaul White for CBS and Freedom House Cast: Rex Stout, Paul Luther, Guy Repp, Ted Osborne, John Dietz (director)[1]: 121–122 [40][41] |
| January 23, 1943 | CBS | 30 min. | The People's Platform | "Is Germany Incurable?" Writers' War Board panel discussion marking the tenth anniversary of Adolf Hitler's rise to power Cast: Rex Stout, Alexander Woollcott,Marcia Davenport, Hunter College president George Shuster,Brooklyn College presidentHarry Gideonse[2]: 318–319 Woollcott is stricken midway through the broadcast and dies a few hours later[2]: 319–320 [42] |
| March 30, 1943 | Mutual | 30 min. | This Is Our Enemy | Series produced by Frank Telford for theUnited States Office of War Information[43] "Axis Propaganda Methods" Stout introduces dramatizations that show how the enemy uses propaganda to weaken American morale Cast: Rex Stout,Jackson Beck,Arnold Moss, Charlotte Holland, Irene Hubbard, Lenny Hoffman,Peter Capell, Ian Martin, Bill Martin, Ed Latimer,Ted Jewett, Guy Repp, Nathan Van Cleve (composer, conductor)[44] |
| April 27, 1943 | Mutual | 30 min. | This Is Our Enemy | "March to the Gallows" Stout addresses the audience at the end of a program dramatizing the stories of well-known traitors includingVidkun Quisling[44] |
| October 13, 1943 | WHN | 30 min. | Author Meets the Critics | A discussion with John Roy Carlson, author ofUnder Cover: My Four Years in the Nazi Underworld of America Cast:Max Lerner,Victor Riesel, Rex Stout[45] |
| February 2, 1944 | WHN | 30 min. | Author Meets the Critics | A discussion withLouis Nizer Cast: John K. M. McCaffrey (host), Russell Hill, Rex Stout[45] |
| March 5, 1944 | ABC | 30 min. | Wake Up America | "What Should Be Done With Defeated Germany?" Debate between Rex Stout and Paul Hagen,[j] author ofGermany After Hitler[47] |
| October 24, 1944 | ABC | 30 min. | Wake Up America | "Does Any National Emergency Justify a Fourth Term?" Rex Stout and commentator Upton Close take questions[47] |
| March 24, 1945 | CBS | 30 min. | A Report to the Nation | Program includes an interview with Rex Stout after his return from Europe, where he asked Germans what they thought about democracy Cast:John Daly (host),Richard C. Hottelet, Rex Stout,Brian Aherne,Clare Boothe Luce[48] |
| 1945 | Synd | 30 min. | Win the Peace | Wartime roundtable discussion about the proposals for a United Nations organization Cast: Edgar Ansel Morra (foreign correspondent), Harry Gideonese, Rex Stout,Virginia Gildersleeve, William Agar (acting president of Freedom House)[49] |
| December 5, 1946 | Mutual | 30 min. | Author Meets the Critics | Cast: John K. M. McCaffrey (host),Paul Gallico, Virgilia Peterson, Rex Stout[31]: 27 [45] |
| January 2, 1949 | NBC | 30 min. | Author Meets the Critics | A discussion ofLarks in the Popcorn with guest authorH. Allen Smith Cast: John K. M. McCaffrey (host),Eloise McElhone, Rex Stout[50] |
| October 12, 1950 | 30 min. | United World Federalists | Report on the fourth annual meeting of the United World Federalists Cast: Jean Putnam, Rex Stout,William O. Douglas,Raymond Gram Swing[51] | |
| July 30, 1951 | NBC | 45 min. | The Eleanor Roosevelt Program | Program includes an interview with Rex Stout[30][52] |
| March 11, 1965 | WNYC | 30 min. | Authors and Critics Gathering | "What do I think about book reviews and book reviewers?" Stout discusses his concerns about the copyright act and asks critics to write about it Cast: Rex Stout (moderator),C. D. B. Bryan,Ralph Ellison, Muriel Resnick,Barbara Tuchman,Edward Albee[53][54] |
| February 14, 1966 | WNYC | 60 min. | Book and Author Luncheon | Program includes Rex Stout discussingThe Doorbell Rang Cast: Maurice Dolbier (host), Helen Hayes, William O. Douglas[55][56] |
| Date | Network | Length | Series | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 16, 1949 | ABC | 30 min. | Critic at Large | "Are Detective Stories Getting Better or Worse?" ModeratorJohn Mason Brown; guests Clifton Fadiman, Howard Haycraft, Rex Stout andJ. Scott Smart[57] |
| November 8, 1951 | DuMont | 30 min. | Crawford Mystery Theatre | "The Case of the Devil's Heart" Mystery writers and other guests watch a 20-minute filmed episode of the 1947–48 seriesPublic Prosecutor and guess the solution ModeratorWarren Hull; guest panelists Rex Stout,Glenn Langan andBetty Buehler[58] |
| December 9, 1956 | ABC | 90 min. | Omnibus | "The Fine Art of Murder" (40 minutes) "A homicide as SirArthur Conan Doyle,Edgar Allan Poe [and] Rex Stout would variously present it" (Time)[59] Cast:Alistair Cooke (host),Gene Reynolds (Archie Goodwin), Robert Eckles (Nero Wolfe),James Daly (narrator),Dennis Hoey (Arthur Conan Doyle), Felix Munro (Edgar Allan Poe),Herbert Voland (M. Dupin), Jack Sydow, Rex Stout[60][61][62][63] WriterSidney Carroll received the 1957Edgar Award for Best Episode in a TV Series[64] Episode is in the collection of the Library of Congress (VBE 2397–2398)[65] |
| February 3, 1957 | CBS | 60 min. | Odyssey | "The Baker Street Irregulars"[66] A program devoted to Sherlock Holmes that includes the first look insideThe Baker Street Irregulars, with film of the organization's annual dinner January 11, 1957 Includes remarks by Stout, and a dramatization of "The Red Headed League" recorded at a special BSI meeting December 14, 1956, at Cavanagh's Restaurant, New York City[67] Preserved on kinescope[68] Cast:Charles Collingwood (host), Rex Stout,Richard H. Hoffmann, Edgar W. Smith,Red Smith, Michael Clarke Laurence (Sherlock Holmes), Donald Marye (Wilson), Harry Gresham (Hargreave)[69] |
| September 16, 1957 | CBS | 60 min. | Studio One | "First Prize for Murder" At the annual banquet of the Mystery Writers of America, novelist Nathaniel Arch fails to appear to receive his award. A stranger shows up who is anxious to find the writer, who is suspected of murder. Live drama by Phil Reisman, from an idea byJohn D. MacDonald Cast:Darren McGavin (Johnny Quigg),Robert Simon,Barbara O'Neil[70] (Mrs. Cory),Jonathan Harris (Master of Ceremonies),Philip Coolidge (Severns),Colleen Dewhurst,Larry Hagman,Ross Martin[71][72] Appearing as themselves are Rex Stout,George Harmon Coxe,Brett Halliday, Frances andRichard Lockridge andGeorges Simenon[73][74] |
| April 5, 1959 | CBS | 30 min. | The Last Word | Cast:Bergen Evans (host), Rex Stout, editorRussell Lynes[75][76] |
| September 2, 1969 | ABC | 60 min. | The Dick Cavett Show | Dick Cavett's guests include Rex Stout[2]: 495 |
| 1973 | WTTW | 30 min. | Book Beat | "Book Beat On Tour" Chicago journalist Robert Cromie records an interview with Stout at his home in Brewster, New York, on April 24, 1973[2]: 509 Program airs onpublic television stations nationwide beginning in November 1973[77] |
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