STOUT-HEARTED MAN

by Rob Lopresti

In response to James’ recent column about phoning it in, which is to say, telling the same story in book after book, I said that I would get around some time to writing about how Rex Stout handled that problem by using plot devices exactly twice.

But before we go there, let’s talk a bit about one of my favorite authors. You probably know he created Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin and wrote 33 novels about them, and about the same number of novelettes, but here are a few facts you might not know:

• Stout was born to a Quaker family and grew up saying “thee” and “thou.”
• In the Navy he was a crewman on Theodore Roosevelt’s presidential yacht.
• He founded the school banking system, in which children brought coins to open an account and get a little interest. He was justifiably proud that no child lost a penny when the Depression started crushing banks.
• He was part of the “lost generation” of American artists and authors who moved to Paris after World War I, where he wrote psychological novels which generally got good reviews and small sales.
• He started writing his first Nero Wolfe novel — about two men who by age could have been father and son — the day he brought his newborn first child, a daughter, home from the hospital.
• Politically, Stout wasn’t easy to label. He was a firm anti-Communist who despised J. Edgar Hoover. He was a Hawk on Vietnam who swore to stay alive until Richard Nixon was out of office – and did.
• The first Nero Wolfe book begins with the end of Prohibition. The last one, forty years later, contemplates Watergate.

For what it’s worth, here are my five favorite Nero Wolfe books, in chronological order:

• Too Many Cooks (1938)
• Prisoner’s Base (1952)
• Before Midnight (1955)
• The Doorbell Rang (1965)
• A Family Affair (1975)

And the best novelettes:

• “The Cop Killer” (1952)
• “The Next Witness” (1956)
• “Too Many Detectives (1957)
• “Poison A La Carte” (1962)
• “Counterfeit For Murder” (1962)

Feel free to argue.

Once is not enough; thrice is too many

Now, let’s talk about Stout using plot devices twice. To the best of my knowledge, Stout never said he did that deliberately, and I don’t think John McAleer reported it in his excellent biography.

But I think Stout did it far too often to be an accident. And, in my opinion, he usually used the plot device better the second time around.

Twenty years ago I could have made a much longer list of examples, but I haven’t reread the novels and especially the novelettes (which aren’t as good, in my opinion) in a long time. I honestly can’t remember what some of them were about, much less the clever plot devices he repeated in them.

However, here are some of the tricks he used twice. For obvious reasons I have left out the titles of the books involved, except in one case where I had to leave out the plot device instead. If you have read the two books in question you probably know what I am getting at.

• A doctor murdering the patient he is treating
• A child witness
• A lawyer killing a client to hide a forged will
• Wolfe hiring a double
• A dog identifying a killer
• An illegitimate child having an illegitimate child
• A factor that connects Death of a Doxy and A Family Affair

Anyone have more examples?