,... ([hica.go (rrlbunt Sunday, July 28. 1974 Arts un/Books - Section f C[hica.go (rribnnt Book World Section 7 July 28. 1974 Special Issue After68 books, Nero's creatorisstillgoingstrong Triple Zeck And now a word or A Omnibus By Rex Stout two with the master VIking. 502 pages, $8.95 By Timothy Dickinson , Reviewed by Nelson Polsby and Rhoda Koenig

If any reader doubts that Arnold Zeck is the It may disappoint his millions of readers. but worst fiend Nero Wolfe, the fat detective, has Rex Stout does not live in a West 35th Street ever encountered, he should pause to brownstone topped by a greenhouse filled consider three pieces of evidence: with orchids. He lives in Brewster, N_Y.. the l 1) Zeck . books Wolfe stories-68 of them in 40 years­ on orchids, and Practical Fingerprinting, there should be sufficient late-arriving but e!f1phatically not a copy of Webster's Nero Wolfe fans amply to justify the Third, which Wolfe, in . shredded publication of this collection. I regret only and threw on the fire, enraged that it the cheesiness of the binding, which will countenances the use or ''infer" to mean probably cause the book to fall apart long "imply." -=-- --~~ ~----~~----~~------before shalTnave the pieasur4toffending Like Wolfe. Stout is a voracious and it to my grandchildren, and that_, Viking opinionated reader ( ''Montaigne was a great Press is no way to treat a classic. man"; ''1 doubt very much if any Italian ever And' make no mistake, the Wolfe series wrote anything worth reading") He admires has classic dimensions. This is true not Conan Doyle. but with reservations ("Oh, he merelv because of its sheer bulk, or that of created great characters. of course: Sher- its hero. Wolfe's adventures are unadul­ ? lock Holmes is probably the most widely terated chronicles of detection. meant to be ~ known fictional character in the world. But read straight thru, for amusement Stout ~ a.c- a storyteller Conan Doyle was a joke'') drops no brand names. indulges in no And he has nothing but good to say about ethnic stereotyping, provides no torrid ! Jane Austen (''Anyone can put you in digressions into sexual monkey business. l suspense having you wonder is ~e going to It is probably Significant that there is no kill her. or is she going to sleep w1th h1m. b~t ~ero Wolfe television series. There is, in she has you on the edge of yoor chair short. a purity about the enterprise-that is wondering if Mr Woodhouse is going to tremendouslY appealing. Wolfe does not merely stumble upon clues; stands to reason: High-priced detectives remember to put his goddam shawl on"). What makes Nero Wolfe a great he leaves that for the police and for his and extortionists are likely to prey upon detective? Three things. First. his chroni­ We sat in the living room of High Meadow. bareroot empiricist assistant, Archie the same clientele. In two out of these three cles resonate beautifully with some of the a sprawling house modeled on a palace Stout Goodwin. No. lik~ the systematic,. if stories. Zeck appears only as an offstage saw m Tunis. He designed and built the hallowed traditions of the genre: Wolfe eccentric inquirer into human behavior threat; in the third. finally. Wolfe is forced himself is a character patterned after house-as well as all the furniture in it-in that he is. Wolfe frames and pursues to deal with him directly. This provides a 1930. The style is thirties avant-garde. which Mycroft Holmes. Sherlock's fat brother. hypotheses. armchair work, to be sure, but nice dramatic structure to the collection as He unmasks criminals in soul-satisfying has since settled down to being haymish. absolutelv necessary to bring coherence a whole. cJimactic confrontations with the entire Stout poured Sauvignon Blanc and benignly into the contrived confusion that clever In the first story, I am bound to say. no offered both of us cigars. cast of characters present; there is the · criminals leave behind them when they do matter how mtellectually satisfying IS theme of rivalry with the local homicide After a brisk preliminary rally !on the their work. And this makes Wolfe enor­ Wolfe's solution to the murder of Cyril detectives. things like that. rarity of Scots Quakers. the state of a mutual mous fun to watch as he sits there doing hls Orchard (poor fellow. he dr~nk a sof~­ friend's eyesight, the connection between Second, Wolfe has a nwnber of valuable detections drink laced with cyanide durmg a radio inflation and Federal Reserve policies>. he props and quirks that give him some life of Readers should be warned. however. talk show). I doubt that a jury would have • was. with great difficulty and many d~shes his 0\\-'11: He has a somewhat mysterious life that owing to the presence of th~t convicted the culprit. The fact is. Wolfe for the undergrowth-'1'he point of mter­ history, for example, including hints of early extraordinarv menace. Arnold Zeck, m sometimes loses interest in a case once he views is for me to find out something about work in the Intelligence service of the this omnibus-. Wolfe is driven to vary his gets the right answer. But any reasonably Austro-Hungarian empire, {erociou!, prej­ these people who come to see me" methods quite drastically in one of these competent defense lawyer cool~ ~ave -persuaded to talk about himself and his udices about food and people, compulsive stories. Curiously, the active Wolfe is by no littered the trail that led to Orchard s k11ler work. We succeeded only because we out­ habits that carry over from.year to year and means as plausible a figure as the familiar with reasonable doubts, extenuating cir­ to numbered him. book book. sedentary genius. cumstances. and puzzling coincidence~. Rex Todhunter Stout was bom on Dec. 1, Third, and I suppose most important, Most Wolfe stones are about murder, and in my opinion would have gotten h1s Continued on page 4 and these are about murder and black­ client off. Nelson Polsby's forthcoming book of mail Zeck. a chieftain of organized crime, I strongly urge that readersc

Continued from page 1 invested his money in the stoc~ market. The 1886, in Noblesville, Ind., into a Quaker next year. of course, brought what Stout calls family of 11. They later moved to Kansas, "the economic disillusionment," and things where. at five, he was more than a match for did not look cheerful. But matters improved the local school system. soon enough. Stout met and married Pola, "The teacher asked me one day what was and, in 1934, with the appearance of the color of the ocean. Well, I hadn't done the Fer-de-Lance, he became the literary agent for that promising new writer, Archie lesson, and I said 'pink.' She let me know Goodwin. As far as anyone can tell, he seems what she thought of that answer. Well, for a to have lived happily ever after. year I read everything I could find about the ocean, and at the end of it I showed that Stout, claiming not to be on speaking terms teacher a list of all the colors the ocean with his unconscious, literally waves away was-'wine·dark' and so on. So she apolo­ all questions about the origin of Nero Wolfe. gized to me. She said, 'Now I seewhyyousaid "pink.'' You thought the ocean could be any "I don't know where he came from. color.' Ha." Absolutely no idea. You know, I think it's a waste of time for writers to be talking about After two weeks at the University of their o"'n writing. I was once in the same Kansas. Stout decided he wasn't going to house for a week with Joseph Conrad. He learn anything there and enlisted in the must have said 349 things about writing, and Navy. in 1906, "to see the color of the ocean,'' not one of them made any sense. I will tell you an ambition hard to satisfy in the corn belt. this. tho. Louis Adamic gave me the idea of making Wolfe a Montenegrin, because the men there are famous for being lazy. He said you can't gel a Tsernagore to do anything." Stout sympathizes with this trait. ."I've never done 10 minutes' research for a story in my life. If I had to, I think I'd go into some other line of business. You know that stuff about bulls in ? I knew a guy who o"'ned a breeding farm. And Pol a (a fabric designer with a studio on Park Avenue) told me aboutthc fabric business for Red Threads. I've never rewritten a page, never made an outline. I just start off with a single sheet of paper with the characters' names. their ages, and what they do. I always finish up the book in 39 or 40 days. When Edna Ferber sat down to write a novel she'd first "'Tite a 2,000-word outline, then a lO,CJOO.word synopsis. Hell, I'd rather earn a living digging ditches.·· , Altho Archie Goodwin seems to be irre­ sistible to all women under 80, nothing more carnal than kissing ever goes on in any of the Wolfe novels, and that usually in the line of duty. That's how Stout intends to keep P.:>o~o by .n Krenenu matters, too. "I feel if you start getting ------~~~-- serious ahOllf c:p_y th~>n vi\nh!>v.o .._ ~ ~ serious about sex, then yoo have a sexstory~ That's all right if that's the kind of story But instead of shipping with the Great White you're writing, but sex just interferes with Fleet he ended up on Theodore Roosevelt's what my stories are about. Of course, I don't yacht, putting his extraordinary gift for say Archie doesn't carry out his intentions figures to use in keeping the ship's books. between chapters." There wasn't mucb ocean, and Stout bought his way out after two y~ars, _with t_he Stout also has no idea of letting Wolfe and enormous sums he won playmg bndge wtth Archie wander from th~ printed page. The officers. only time he became annoyed during the

Once ashore, Stout roamed thru 36 of the "Come. mark them down with a big black z.ero United States, taking temporary jobs, and Who don't love Archie, Rex, and Nero." then spent several profitable years writing -Phyffis McGinley short stories for the magazines-stories he has totally forgotten and firmly refuses to reread. He went on to invent and operate a interview was when we asked why none of his school savings banking system, which he novels had been made into a movie. sold to 400 school boards, and traveled for two '·Because I hate the goddam medium. I years in Europe and North Africa. haven't seen a movie in 30 years. There were two Nero Wolfe pictures, one with Edward In Paris he lived for two years at 44 Blvd. Arnold. the other with Walter Connolly, and Henri IV, at the same address as Rabelais. they were both so awful I wouldn't have any ("It wasn't the same building, but just to more, tho the movie and TV people have know that I was living on thesamespotmade made me I don't know how many offers. I me feel important.") It was in Paris, also, as hate the TV, too. I think the telling of stories he has often said, that he met Oscar Wilde. in pictures is the worst inve~tion of t~ 20th century. It's going to stultify and fmally But wasn't he only 13 years old when Oscar abolish the human imagination. All I watch Wilde died~ we asked. The question didn't on TV are the baseball games and political slow Stout down for a moment. "That's conventions. Conventions are the funniest absolutely right," he agreed, his benevolent damn show there is." smile turning to a wicked chuckle. "I've told that story to interviewers for years, and not We didn't give up. "Still, wasn't there one of them told me I was a damn liar. someone you would have liked to see play Someone should have." Nero Wolfe? What about Orson Welles?" With half a million dollars to show for his "Oh, he asked, all right. So did Syndey business efforts, stout in 1928 took the sage Greenstreet. But no, no, I just couldn't see advice of the president of Bankers Trust and it." Page 4-Sec~ -=- word or two with the master

"And was there no one you could see as of friendship with what are called the Nazis. Arc~ie? What about the young Gary­

-P. G. Wodehouse 'I have never met Rex Stout, but he is an extraordinarily encotxgaging and comforting godforsaken place in hopes of hunting coOeague Ill my imagination He is a Populist down or flushing out a master criminal? dream come tru~ master craftsman. marvel­ Holmes, for instance, ventured onto the ously. his own boss and even more mawelously lonely, dangerous moors atnight to track the enraged orelated by failures orsuccesses in the terrible Hound of the Baskenilles; ruxi did exercise of the widest, deepest sorts of he not almost cash in his chips while battling. American justice." the evil Moriarty. on a precipiceb?______overlooking __ -Kurt Vonnegut Jr. •o one moors or WlSS prectpJ.<:es or Nero Wolfe. While Hercule Poirot is companion, Capt. Hastings, and various sniffing out murder on the Blue Train and other second bananas. Travis McGee is playing life-and-death A man of the streets, Goodwin gathers games at sea off the Florida coast, and information like a sponge, then plops Philip Marlowe and Lew Archer are it-and usually all the suspects as dodging bullets in decadent southern well-into the lap of his employer. Wolfe, California, Wolfe is puttering '.l.ith his v.ho only works \\hen the bank balance orchids, drinking beer by the case and begins to dissolve, puts his mighty brain su~rvisin~ gourmet meals in the shadow into its highest gear sparingly, usually of the Empire State Building. In fact, it is a Nerophile Quiz about 4 5th of the way thru a book. The rare occurrence for him to even leave the giveaway to this moment of moments is bouse. when the great man, always seated at his Wolfe hates to leave home, even for a cab During the last 40 years Rex Stout has 3. The three other freelance operatives desk, closes his eyes and begins pushing ride across Manhattan-tory, the eye prepares such delights as Rognons aux get less than 10, go to your local library, 7. Lon Cohen, a newspaperman who naming of the murderer, \\-.olfe has Montagnes, ftiets of beef with sauce Abano check out no fewer than five Nero Wolfe frequently supplies information to Goodwin assemble all the suspects-and and Hungarian petits poissons, and clams books, and spend a few weeks refreshing Wolfe, works for a New York paper the befuddled police-in his office for the hashed with eggs, parsley, green pepper, your memory. Answers on page 5. called the . (3 pts.l revelation, to which he carefully and chives, fresh mushrooms, and sherry. I. Archie Goodwin's hOme state is 8. Archie's longtime girlfriend is dramatically builds. His rewards for these ____ (3 pts.l · (3) A superb wine cellar and an endless ---· (2pts.) invariably successful efforts are outra­ supply of beer (domestic). 2. lnMightAsWe11BeDead(l956loneof 9. Fritz Brenner is a native of ___ ~eous fees, which on occasion have Wolfe's frequently employed opera­ (3 pts.) reached sL-..: figures. Andhedoesitall without tives was killed. He was . (4 10. Police Inspector Cramer's assistant is .stepping outside. Robert Goldsborough is the Tribune's pts.) a sergeant named (2 pts.l But then he is the greatest detective in Sunday editor. the world. Chicago Tribune Book World July 28, 1974 Section 7-Page 3 \ • f C. ( - "'" . I ·someone's in the kitchen with Nero been steadily subverted by the reader? Indeed, the best cookbook page by page. be­ By John Hess marvelous fare. Plot and of his diet is what .\mericans cause a recipe calls for character do intervene, de­ used to consider everyday discarding the bacon rind A o,·er a dish of lamb kidneys spite Wolfe's firm rule food : scrambled eggs, crime indeed, in these times one evening. Nero Wolfe against talking ~siness at omelette:. blueberry muf­ when Clavoris so hard lo find . maintained that if you knew table. However. Viking fins, homcbaked bread, I am sorry that Wolfe v. hat any society ate. you com on the cob. fritters, could deduce everything else cho\\ clers. pancakes. shad about it-.. eulture, morals. "I have been a devoted reader t'Oe. squirrel stew. corn pud­ "If he had done nothing more politics. everything." ., of Rex Stout tor many years. ding . . . than create Archie Goodwin, Easier clues are to be Imagine my delight in finding :'\c\'er. be it said. have our Rex SloLi would deserve the found, surely. in what we my own name tn one of his heroes succumbed to the gratitude of whatever asses­ read. recent books. . I use hts fake .·com·enience:· fad. One sors watch over the prospenty Like any other dreams, our cookbook too. He's a great might object that they have of American literature. ·• favorite detective tells us a cook." Fritz to squeeze their -Jacques Barzu n lot about what we are. or at oranges But even when -Amy Vanderbilt least what we'd like to be. hiding out from a killer, The typical detective in fic­ Wolfe v. ould-and did-find thinks wine is for women. tion is either a hard-drinking Press recently peeled all that and that Archie accom­ mashochist or a dilettante av.ay and gave us Archie'~ panies magnificent dishes snob. But 40 years ago, Chef asides about the food. \\ ith "Rex StOIA 1s among the with milk, coffee. or rye Rex Stout refined these con­ recipes to match, in The half-dozen people to whom I highballs. But I admire them tradictory ingredients into a Nero WolfeCookbwi<, surely 'f'lrole a fan letter . Stout, a for the dedication that sends dish that flatters both our the most entertaining food busy man. found time to Archie scouring the country. national character and our book in years. answer it. I never met him. btt not only for clues but also for palates. 'I11e credits reveal that. in he gives me the feeling of Georgia country ham, fresh­ On the one hand. we have spite of Wolfe's misogny. the having knoNn him a long time. picked corn, farm sausage. 1\ero Wolfe. the fat genius ins pi ration behind his • . . I've savored his books as game. poultry, lamb, and cuisine was that of a woman. tho they were a truly find boeuf proper foods or all kind. It "I know how much grinding the late Sheila Hibben of The bourgtgnon. Mr. Stout, also a lakes great detectives. or effort tt must take Mr. Stout to New Yorker. serious eater. will under­ fiction writers, to find them make his work seem so Her recipes are open to stand · these days. debate. In my viev.. they are effortless. The homely fussy -Joseph Wechsberg If not at our own tables, little details of the menage and tainted with the "gourmet" then at the one on West 35th the friction-tension of the long plague that spoils our haute Street. we have been feasting relationship establish and cuisine-that is. too much some way to put together a for 40 years. :~ow. sipping maintain dimensional charac­ complication, too much use meal fit for humans. our coffee and brandy in the terizations w1th impressive of fancy ingredients such as In one murder story, the library. a grateful burp skill '' caviar and truffles. too much title of which I have forgot­ \\OUid not be out of place. Or, -John D. MacDonald Oour in the sauces. (In a ten, Archie comes upon as ~ero would say Sat isfac­ private kitchen with a pro- Wolfe while he is tearing up a tory.

--~-.LJ_._ __. __ .....l..olo__.;_.._.__ '--- ~------·- turned private detective to ~atisfv his eccentric appe­ 'Stout can't help but be an tites for food, orchids, and inspiralion to wriers. Uke books. These obsessions Wodehouse, he continues to being patently foreign and write into advanced old age unman!\-. Wolfe is dubbed a wnt1 no noticeable fall-off in Montenegrin and assigned quality; what brighter possibili- an all-American assistant. ty can any of us hope for? Afld On the other hand, we have in so doing, Stout gives the .wisecracking Archie Good· inimitable detective pair of win. haney "'ith his dukes but Wolfe and GoodNin a longer not belligerent. attractive to life for the delectation of his the ladies but discreet about myriad readers ... it. appreciative of Fritz - Isaac Asimov Brenner's cooking but ready to make do with a corned­ beef sand~ich in a drugstore while on the run. fessional cook like Fritz In the real world, of Brenner, there should not be course. our standard or eat­ any flour in the sauces.> And ing has gone to hell. but in it is hard to agree with Archie that "the greatest that dream house on West duck dish of· all" would 3.Sth Street in Manhattan, contain cream, grated Archie and the rest of us have cheese, and pistachio nuts. Wolfe reflects this weak­ John Hess is a former ness when he advises read­ foreign correspondent and ers of the cookbook to fix former food editor of The these dishes "only for an New York Times. His latest occasion that is worthy of book is The Grand Ac­ them." He himself eats well quisitors. every day-why should not

Nerophile Quiz Answers

1. Ohio 2. Johnny Kcems 3. Saul Panzer, Orrie Cather, Fred Durkin. ·t Dr. Edward \'ollmer, Nathaniel Parker 5. Fer-de-Lance 6. Rusterman·s 7. Gazette 8. Lily Ro\.\-an 9. s~itzerland 10. Pw·ley Stebbins

Chicago Tribune Book World July 28,\ \974 Nero et a/- -a Rex Stout checklist

NOVELS Fun House: A Nero Wolle Three at Wolfe's Door Forest Fire Omnibus Three Doors to Death Golden Remedy Gambit Three foe' lhe Chair How Uke a Goo Three Men Out Mr. Cinderella Homicide Trimty· A Nero Wolle Three Trumps: The Seventh 0 Careless Love' Threesome Nero WoHe Ormibus Seed on the Wind The President Vanishes lo lhe Best Families Too Many Clients Kings FuU of Aces: The Fifth Nero WoHe Orrnbus NERO WOLFE MYSTERIES The League ot Frightened Men Trio for Blunt Instruments All Aces: A Nero Wolfe Ominbus Trl>le Jeopardy The Mother Hunt Tnple Zeck Murder by lhe Book Trouble 111 T riplicale Not Ouite Dead Enough Where There's a Wil Over My Dead Body TECUMSEH FOX MYSTERIES The Black Mountain Please Pass lhe Guilt Plot It YourseH Bad 101' Business etwnpagne 101' One Pnsoner's Base The Broken Vase Curtains for Three Double 101' Death Death ot a Doxy Royal Flush: The Fourth Nero Oealh ot a Dude Wolfe Qrnni)us MYSTERIES The DoorbeB Rang The Rubber Band Alphabet Hicks The Falher Hunt The Hand in lhe Glove Fer-de-Lance The Silent Speaker The FJOal Deduction Some Buried Caesar Red Threads FTVe of a Kind: The Third Nero Tlvee Aces: The Sixth Nero NONFICTION Wolfe Qrnni)us Wolfe Omnibus The Nero Wolle Cookbook