Fun Facts Friday: Rex Stout

Rex Stout (1 December, 1886 – 27 October, 1975) was an American writer, most notable for detective fiction. Mr. Stout’s books about Nero Wolf and Archie Goodwin (Wolf’s assistant), were his biggest sellers.

Books by Rex Stout*

1)      Born in Noblesville, IN to a family of Quakers with nine children. The family moved to Kansas shortly after his birth.

2)      At age 13, Mr. Stout became the state spelling bee champion.

3)      From 1906 to 1908 Mr. Stout served in the US Army, including a stint as a yeoman on the presidential yacht of Theodore Roosevelt.

4)      Between 1912 and 1918, Mr. Stout published approximately 40 fictional stories in various magazines (mostly pulp).

5)      He helped to found Vanguard Press, a publishing company, which published his first book How Like A God.

6)      The book which introduced Nero Wolf to the world, Fer-de-Lance, was originally published in 1934 in The American Magazine (in an abridged version).

7)      Another contribution of Mr. Stout to detective fiction was Theodolinda “Dol” Bonner, a female PI and a fictional literary protagonist.

8)      Mr. Stout received the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master award in 1959.

9)      At Bouchercon XXXI, the world’s largest mystery convention, Mr. Stout was nominated as Best Mystery Writer of the Century and the Nero Wolfe stories were nominated Best Mystery Series of the Century.

10)   Mr. Stout became a celebrity during the golden age of radio.

Books by Rex Stout*

Zohar – Man of LA Book
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account