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John McAleer, "Rex Stout: A Biography"

Kirkus Reviews

Treating the late (in 1975, at 89), great Rex Stout to a 500-page biography is like crowning Fred Astaire with a solid gold top hat: very ennobling, but how's the man supposed to dance? And dance is what a Stout biography should do, to keep up with the career-switching, cause-embracing, book-producing stamina of the creator of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin: child math whiz, sailor, magazine fictioneer (Justice Ends at Home, p. 247), mastermind of the lucrative kiddiebanking Educational Thrift Service, publisher, defender of authors' rights, WW II's radio "lie detective" and Hate-the-Germans propagandist, gardener, chef, and Baker Street highly-Irregular ("Watson was a Woman").

McAleer, beneficiary of Stout's authorization, cooperation, and comments, has lavished every virtue on this project except that of selectivity; if Rex did it, said it, heard it, or received it, it's there—in detail. And, despite careful analysis of the psycho-sexual pre-Nero novels and a pedantic, socio-metaphorical interpretation of the detective stories, he never demonstrates that Stout's oeuvre justifies such an approach or that his life deserves such grandiose frames ("Book V / The Years of Choice").

Still, some of the densely documented materials hold historical interest (the hair-splitting, wartime feuds) or are simply intriguing (number of days spent on each book). And, for the Neronian who's willing to wade through this overstuffed crackerjack box, there are dozens of prizes: the genesis of "Me Barzun, you vain," tributes to Stout from every camp, and a bounty of Stout observations (asked about future books at 87: "I've been told [this is a rumor], that after you're cremated it's pretty hard to write stories").

Authoritative beyond question or the call of duty—a belabor of love.

Contents

& 8220;Illustrations

Foreword

Stout Family Tree

Introduction

In the Beginning

Book I: Heritage

 1. Rootstock and Genes—The Stouts

 2. Rootstock and Genes—The Todhunters

Book II: A Prairie Boyhood

 3. Cabbages and Kings

 4. John and Lucetta

 5. Stout Traits—Todhuntery Ways

 6. Everything Alive

 7. Hackberry Hall

 8. Mr. Brilliance

 9. Know-It-All in Knee Pants

 10. Dramatic Interlude

Book III: The Nomadic Years

 11. The Mayflower Years

 12. Logic and Life

 13. A Brownstone in New York

 14. Literary Apprenticeship

 15. Underground Novelist

 16. The Heart Has Reasons

 17. Crime Fiction

Book IV: A Liberal Awakening

 18. Melons and Millions

 19. Pied Piper of Thrift

 20. Civil Libertarian

 21. His Own Man

 22. Expatriate Novelist

Book V: The Years Of Choice

 23. Squire of High Meadow

 24. A Literary Farmer

 25. Stout Fellow

 26. Lazy Bloodhound

 27. Mystery Monger

 28. Commander over the Earth

Book VI: Minister Of Propaganda

 29. King's Gambit

 30. Nero Wolfe Gets Smaller

 31. Crusader by Inner Compulsion

 32. The Lie Detective

 33. Chairman Rex

 34. Hunting with the Hounds

 35. Ideological Racketeer

 36. A Man of Sovereign Parts

Book VII: Citizen Of The World

 37. Under Viking Sail

 38. A Superman Who Talks like a Superman

 39. Beyond High Meadow

 40. King Rex

 41. Watch Out for Rex Stout

 42. The King in Action

 43. More than a Duke

 44. Master of Mystery

 45. The Best We Have

 46. A Majesty's Life

Book VIII: A King's Ransom

 47. A Fish at Wolfe's Door

 48. Champion of Justice

 49. The One and True Paradigm

 50. A Man Who Gloriously Acts and Decides

 51. Nero Equals Archie

 52. Sage of High Meadow

 53. Hip Hooroy, You Bearded Boy

Notes

A Rex Stout Checklist

 Early Publications

  Poetry

  Novels

  Short Stories

 Later Publications

  Novels 1929–1975

  Novellas 1940–1964

  Short Stories 1936–1955

  Novella Collections

  Omnibus Volumes

  Edited Volumes

  Articles

  Forewords, Introductions, Prefaces, Jacket Essays

  Fugitive Verse

  Broadcasts in Print

  Reviews

 Interviews

 Selected Criticism

 Alternate Titles of Rex Stout Books

 Alternate Titles of Rex Stout Novellas and Short Stories

Acknowledgments

Index& 8221;

Tags: qBiography, qMystery, qLiterature

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See Also:

Diana Tixier Herald, "Genreflecting: A Guide to Popular Reading Interests (6th Edition)"

Jane Rogers (ed), "Good Fiction Guide"

Pierre Bayard, "How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read"

Deirdre Le Faye, "Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels"

Tom McArthur, "The Oxford Companion to the English Language"

John Rignall (ed), "Oxford Reader's Companion to George Eliot"

R. C. Terry, "Oxford Reader's Companion to Trollope"

Wayne C. Booth, "The Rhetoric of Fiction (2nd Edition)"

Rating:
2.5 out of 5 by Book123