Saturday, December 01, 2012

Happy Birthday, Rex

Today is the birthday of Rex Stout (1886). He is, of course, the creator of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin - the first book, Fer-de-lance, was written when he was 46, but he wrote prolifically (yay!) and there are over 40 novels and novellas featuring the pair. Timothy Hutton (he was born to play Archie) and Maury Chaykin made two seasons of television for A&E and I absolutely recommend the DVDs. The slightly stylized effect of the repertory cast actually catches the flavor of the effect that Stout achieved by moving the stories along in time (Depression, WWII, the Fifties, Civil Rights...) while leaving the characters the same age the whole time. There are only a few mystery/detective books I can read a second time - Wolfe I can read over and over; it's Archie's narrative voice, of course.

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3 Comments:

At 1:57 PM, December 01, 2012 Anonymous Mark P had this to say...

A friend claims I (or possibly my father) told him that my father met Rex Stout sometime during WW II. I wish I could remember that story.

 
At 2:28 PM, December 01, 2012 Anonymous Kathie had this to say...

Don't forget sister Ruth Stout, a passionate vegetable gardener. She sometimes mentioned Rex in her articles in "Organic Gardening" magazine. Guess horticulture was a family value!

 
At 8:27 PM, December 03, 2012 Blogger The Ridger, FCD had this to say...

I couldn't forget Ruth because I didn't know about her!

 

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