Talk:Rex Stout

Dol Bonner

The first female detective in fiction goes back definitely back way further than 1937; Jess Nevin's "Fantastic Victoriana" has descriptions of far older instances. It may be that the qualifier "private" makes it a bit more true, though I doubt this. Additionally there is the possibility that all previous instances starred in short stories, not novels. Given that the first *real* female private detective goes back to 1856 with Kate Warner joining the Pinkerton agency, I have my doubts about that too.

Until someone can get some confirmation I will remove the speculation that Dol Bonner is the first female private detective to star in novels. Martijn Faassen 12:18, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

I was told authoritatively (by a university professor teaching a course about woman PIs/detectives) that there are earlier examples of the woman PI as a fictional protagonist, but I can't say what they are, years later. I know that The Hand in the Glove is nearly the first, though, and thus significant. Accounting4Taste 05:42, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

Fer de Lance

His magnum opus? By whose definition? Anchoress 05:30, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Quite right -- it's one of the poorer Nero Wolfe books. It's the first one, and many of the features that are integral to Wolfe are violated in this early story. T-bonham (talk) 02:54, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

Image

it would help. Help911 12:08, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Image has been added; template removed. — WFinch 05:15, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Mountain Cat

I mistakenly changed the original name of this novel, "Mountain Cat", to "The Mountain Cat Murders", the title of every single reprint (to the best of my knowledge) since the first edition. I changed it back, but I expect not many people will be familiar with the original title and so provided both. Accounting4Taste 05:39, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

Comic Strip

There definitely was a syndicated Nero Wolfe comic strip in the 50s... all I know is that it was written by John Broome. Rhinoracer 14:35, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Citation needed

There is a citation needed inserted in the article following a sentence regarding readers' alienation, Stout's stance on the Vietnam War, and his attitude toward Communism. It is not clear whether the request for citation concerns the readers, Vietnam or Communism. Perhaps someone can clarify. I had temporarily added a quotation from The Silent Speaker but on consideration reverted to the citation needed. TurnerHodges (talk) 04:38, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Forest Fire

I added some details about this rather obscure book. Perhaps too much? But I'm not sure how to cut this and still give a reasonable summary of the story. T-bonham (talk) 10:59, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

FBI

Couldn't this be summarized? How exactly had an agency formed in 1935 been keeping records on Stout since 1910? 74.109.33.112 (talk) 02:38, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

I suspect that in referring to 1910 you are relying on the statement that " . . . Stout's name in the FBI files reached back to his beginnings as an author . . ." The statement could probably have been written more clearly, but it is a quote. It is entirely plausible that someone who was interviewed by the FBI in, say, 1965 said something about Stout's early days as an author, and that information found its way into the file.

It's worth noting that the FBI was founded in 1908, as the Bureau (sometimes the Division) of Investigation.

As to summarizing the information, what do you suggest? TurnerHodges (talk) 03:49, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

Something like -

Rex Stout was one of many American writers closely watched by J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, The FBI had collected 301 pages of data mostly about his association with the ACLU and when he served as president of the Authors League. J. Edgar Hoover considered Stout an enemy of the FBI and therefore a Communist or a tool of Communist-dominated groups and 'an alleged radical'. About one hundred pages of his dossier are about his novel The Doorbell Rang.

In its April 1976 report, Church Committee—found that The Doorbell Rang, which J Edgar Hoover felt "presented a highly distorted and most unfavorable picture of the Bureau", is why Rex Stout was one of the 332 names placed on the FBI's "not to contact list" of "those individuals known to be hostile to the Bureau." Nitpyck (talk) 19:21, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

December 1, 2011 FA?

The 125th anniversary of Rex Stout's birth will be on December 1, 2011. I'd like to start a concerted drive to bring either Rex Stout or Nero Wolfe to featured article standards with a view to asking that it be the mainpage FA on that date. Thoughts? Regards, Newyorkbrad (talk) 21:19, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

I think it's a splendid idea. I would urge the the NW article be proposed rather than the Stout article, partly for reasons that might not be entirely cogent, but also for some sound reasons. For example, I suspect that many more WP readers would recognize, and find more intrinsic interest in Nero Wolfe than in Rex Stout. That, despite Stout's membership, along with luminaries such as George Bernard Shaw and Monty Woolley, on an All-Beard Baseball Team, and his acquaintance with the polymath Albert Morehead, who occasionally wrote using the pseudonym Turner Hodges.

Two or three years ago, some editors prepared suggestions for improvement of the NW article, found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Peer_review/Nero_Wolfe/archive1. The idea was to make the NW article a "good" article. Although I believe that the issues raised are now mostly addressed, we might want to keep them in mind, in addition to the FA criteria that NYB cites.

I wonder if there's an editor who has participated heavily in the successful preparation of an FA, who might be interested in getting involved with this effort.

NYB, this seems to have been your idea. Are you volunteering to take the lead? That would be satisfactory. TurnerHodges (talk) 19:42, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure about "taking the lead" on bringing Nero Wolfe to FA, but I'll be happy to collaborate in doing so with the regular editors on the page. I'll have limited wikitime this holiday week (as I suspect will many), but let's focus on what needs to be done, after the first of the year. Regards, Newyorkbrad (talk) 01:37, 25 December 2010 (UTC)

Annuncio's Violin

Well how on earth. Extraordinary catch, NYB. That story appeared in Short Stories magazine, October 1912, in the same issue as "Excess Baggage", and somehow it was picked up for that 2000 short story collection. Too Many Rexes. — WFinch (talk) 01:32, 18 January 2014 (UTC)

Reorganizing this article

I've been thinking of doing some significant reorganization of this article. In particular, I think the current structure doesn't say enough about what makes the books so memorable, and while the TV and radio appearances are significant, I think they are given too much prominence (appear higher than they should in the article) here.

I also wonder whether we should spin off the lengthy bibliography into a daughter article, as has been done for many other authors.

Thoughts? Regards, Newyorkbrad (talk) 02:57, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

Absolutely, I'd love to see it restructured. I was very happy to see the paragraph you've added to the lede, summarizing Stout's public activities. If the bibliography were spun off into a separate article there'd be room for that very interesting story to be expanded. (The bibliography on the Nero Wolfe article could be trimmed and link to that separate bibliography, as well.)

A good pruning might be in order, too, since so many individual articles now exist for the stories and adaptations. Maybe a table could be created to present the TV and radio appearances in a cleaner and clearer way, too. — WFinch (talk) 00:44, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

"Speaking of Liberty"? Radio series hosted by Stout, sponsored by Council for Democracy.

• http://www.digitaldeliftp.com/DigitalDeliToo/dd2jb-Speaking-of-Liberty.html
• https://archive.org/details/SpeakingOfLiberty

There's also a link to an OTR catalog but it's on Wiki's spam list so won't copy

Mirawithani (talk) 06:15, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Oh good — thanks. There have to be a lot of appearances missing, and if there were a table it'd be easier to make additions as things are discovered. — WFinch (talk) 11:03, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

I think Stout's radio broadcast series (Our Secret Weapon, Speaking of Liberty, and Voice of Freedom) in service of WW II support, along with Writers Board, belong in a subheading for "WW II" under Public Activities. Random guest shots are a very different kind of thing, which I think are more appropriately "TV and Radio Appearances" and could be listed separately as such. Mirawithani (talk) 22:23, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

I just created a Rex Stout bibliography article using the information that existed here, and trimmed everything but a bare "main article" link from this article. Maybe there should be a summary statement; but there isn't on the Arthur Conan Doyle article, I see. Here's an interesting discovery: the Holmes stories are split out of Doyle's main bibliography into another bibliography called "Canon of Sherlock Holmes". — WFinch (talk) 20:01, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Nero Wolfe has many autistic traits. I am wondering if Rex Stout was autistic, or if Rex Stout had family members who were autistic. Desertphile (talk) 03:26, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

Marriage template in infobox

The infobox used in this article is Template:Infobox person, currently used on more than 404,000 pages. The template documentation states that the spouse field be completed as follows:

Name of spouse(s), followed by years of marriage. Use the format Name (married 1950–present) for a current spouse, and Name (married 1970–99) for former spouse(s). Use article title (if linking) or common name. For multiple entries, use an inline list. For deceased persons still married at time of death, do not include the end year.

Yesterday an editor reformatted the information in the spouse field of the Rex Stout and Pola Stout infoboxes by using the Template:Marriage. This template provides a great deal more detail, and is today being used on approximately 49,000 pages. Although editors have proposed it in past years, consensus is against it being added to the Infobox:Person template.

I would ask that editors who wish to use the marriage template in the Infobox:Person template propose the change and argue the merits at Template talk:Infobox person. — WFinch (talk) 13:48, 19 April 2021 (UTC)

Location and circumstances of his death?

Can someone add at least a paragraph on where Stout lived in the final years of his life, and also the circumstance of his death and place of burial? I don't see that information as of 28 July 2023. 2603:800C:3A40:6400:245F:FAA2:ED54:EE6A (talk) 04:59, 29 July 2023 (UTC)

I can take care of this within the next couple of days. Thanks, Newyorkbrad (talk) 05:51, 29 July 2023 (UTC)