Rex Stout

Rex Stout
Rex Stout onOur Secret Weapon(December 1942)
Born	Rex Todhunter Stout (1886-12-01)December 1, 1886 Noblesville, Indiana, United States
Died	October 27, 1975(1975-10-27)(aged 88) Danbury, Connecticut, United States
Occupation	Writer
Genre	Detective fiction
Notable works	Nero Wolfe corpus 1934–1975
Spouse	Fay Kennedy ​ ​ (m.1916;div.1932)​ Pola Weinbach Hoffmann ​ ​ (m.1932)​
Children	2
Military career
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1906–1908

Rex Todhunter Stout(/staʊt/;December 1, 1886 – October 27, 1975) was an American writer noted for hisdetective fiction.His best-known characters are the detectiveNero Wolfeand his assistantArchie Goodwin,who were featured in 33 novels, and 41 novellas and short stories, between 1934 and 1975.

In 1959, Stout received theMystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award. The Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated Best Mystery Series of the Century atBouchercon XXXI,the world's largest mystery convention, and Rex Stout was nominated Best Mystery Writer of the Century.

In addition to writing fiction, Stout was a prominent public intellectual for decades. Stout was active in the early years of theAmerican Civil Liberties Unionand a founder of theVanguard Press.He served as head of theWriters' War Boardduring World War II, became a radio celebrity through his numerous broadcasts, and was later active in promotingworld federalism.He was the long-time president of theAuthors Guild,during which he sought to benefit authors by lobbying for reform of the domestic and internationalcopyrightlaws,and served a term as president of theMystery Writers of Americain 1959.

Biography

Early life

Stout was born inNoblesville, Indiana,in 1886, but shortly afterwards hisQuakerparents John Wallace Stout and Lucetta Elizabeth Todhunter Stout moved their family (nine children in all) toKansas.

His father was a teacher who encouraged his son to read, leading to Rex having read the entire Bible twice by the age of four. At age thirteen he was the statespelling beechampion. Stout attendedTopeka High School, Kansas,and theUniversity of Kansas, Lawrence.His sister,Ruth Stout,also authored several books on no-work gardening and some social commentaries.

He served in theU.S. Navyfrom 1906 to 1908 (including service as ayeomanonTheodore Roosevelt's presidential yacht) and then spent about the next four years working at a series of jobs in six states, including cigar-store clerk.

In 1910–11, Stout sold three short poems to the literary magazineThe Smart Set.Between 1912 and 1918, he published about forty works of fiction in various magazines, ranging from literary publications such asSmith's MagazineandLippincott's Monthly Magazineto pulp magazines like theAll-Story Weekly.

Not his writing, but his invention of a school banking system in about 1916 gave him enough money to travel in Europe extensively. About 400 U.S. schools adopted his system for keeping track of the money that school children saved in accounts at school, and he was paid royalties.

In 1916, Stout married Fay Kennedy ofTopeka, Kansas.They divorced in February 1932and, in December 1932, Stout marriedPola Weinbach Hoffmann,a designer who had studied withJosef HoffmanninVienna.

Writings

A frequent guest panelist on the NBC radio seriesInformation Please,Stout was featured in the first of 18 RKO-Pathé short film versions that screened in American theaters. Sitting on the steps of the Radio City Music Hall lobby after the September 1939 premiere are (from left) Pathé chief Frederic Ullman Jr., Stout, director Frank P. Donovan,John Kieran,Franklin P. AdamsandDan Golenpaul,creator of the radio program.

The Stout family at High Meadow, "The House That Nero Wolfe Built" (Look,February 13, 1940)

Rex Stout began his literary career in the 1910s writing for magazines, particularlypulp magazines,writing more than 40 stories that appeared between 1912 and 1918. Stout's early stories appeared most frequently inAll-Story Magazineand its affiliates, but he was also published inSmith's Magazine,Lippincott's Monthly Magazine,Short Stories,The Smart Set,Young's Magazine,andGolfers' Magazine.The early stories spanned genres including romance, adventure, science fiction/fantasy, and detective fiction, including two serialized murder mystery novellas that prefigured elements of the Wolfe stories. In 1916, Stout was tired of writing a story whenever he needed money. He decided to stop writing until he had made enough money to support himself through other means, so that he would be able to write when and as he pleased. He wrote no fiction for more than a decade, until the late 1920s, when he had saved substantial money through his school banking system. Ironically, just as Stout was starting to write fiction again, he lost most of the money that he had made as a businessman in theGreat Depressionof 1929.

In 1929, Stout wrote his first published bookHow Like a God,an unusual psychological story written in the second person and published by theVanguard Press,which he had helped to found. During this phase of his writing career, Stout also published a pioneering political thrillerThe President Vanishes(1934), which was originally published anonymously.

In the 1930s, Stout turned to writing detective fiction. In 1933–34, he wroteFer-de-Lance,which introducedNero Wolfeand his assistantArchie Goodwin.The novel was published byFarrar & Rinehartin October 1934, and in abridged form as "Point of Death" inThe American Magazine(November 1934). The characters of Wolfe and Goodwin are considered among Stout's main contributions to detective fiction. Wolfe was described by reviewerWill Cuppyas "thatFalstaffof detectives ".

In 1937, Stout's novelThe Hand in the Gloveintroduced the character of Theodolinda "Dol" Bonner, a female private detective who would appear in later Wolfe stories and who is an early and significant example of the woman PI as fictional protagonist. He also created two other detective protagonists, Tecumseh Fox and Alphabet Hicks. After 1938, Stout wrote no fiction but mysteries, and after 1940, almost entirely Nero Wolfe stories. Stout continued writing the Nero Wolfe series for the rest of his life, publishing at least one adventure per year through 1966 (with the exception of 1943, when he was busy with activities related toWorld War II). Stout's rate of production declined somewhat after 1966, but he still published four further Nero Wolfe novels prior to his death in 1975, at the age of 88. During World War II, Stout cut back on his detective writing, joined the Fight for Freedom organization, and wrote propaganda. He hosted three weekly radio shows and coordinated the volunteer services of American writers to help the war effort. After the war, Stout returned to writing Nero Wolfe novels and took up the role of gentleman farmer on his estate at High Meadow inBrewster,north of New York City. He served as president of theAuthors Guildand of theMystery Writers of America,which in 1959 presented Stout with the Grand Master Award – the pinnacle of achievement in the mystery field.

Stout was a longtime friend of British humoristP. G. Wodehouse,writer of theJeevesnovels and short stories. Each was a fan of the other's work, and parallels are evident between their characters and techniques. Wodehouse contributed the foreword toRex Stout: A Biography,John McAleer'sEdgar Award-winning 1977 biography of the author (reissued in 2002 asRex Stout: A Majesty's Life). Wodehouse also mentions Rex Stout in several of his Jeeves books, as both Bertie and his Aunt Dahlia are fans.

Public activities

In the fall of 1925,Roger Nash Baldwinappointed Rex Stout to the board of theAmerican Civil Liberties Union's powerful National Council on Censorship; Stout served one term.Stout helped start the radical Marxist magazineThe New Masses,which succeededThe MassesandThe Liberatorin 1926.He had been told that the magazine was primarily committed to bringing arts and letters to the masses, but he realized after a few issues "that it was Communist and intended to stay Communist", and he ended his association with it.

Stout was one of the officers and directors of theVanguard Press,a publishing house established with a grant from theGarland Fundto reprint left-wing classics at an affordable cost and publish new books otherwise deemed "unpublishable" by the commercial press of the day. He served as Vanguard's first president from 1926 to 1928, and continued as vice president until at least 1931. During his tenure, Vanguard issued 150 titles, including seven books byScott Nearingand three of Stout's own novels—How Like a God(1929),Seed on the Wind(1930), andGolden Remedy(1931).

In 1942, Stout described himself as a "pro-Labor, pro-New Deal,pro-Roosevelt left liberal ".

DuringWorld War II,he worked with the advocacy group Friends of Democracy, chaired theWriters' War Board(a propaganda organization), and supported theembryonic United Nations.He lobbied forFranklin D. Rooseveltto accept a fourth term as president. He developed an extreme anti-German attitude and wrote the provocative essay "We Shall Hate, or We Shall Fail"which generated a flood of protests after its January 1943 publication inThe New York Times.The attitude is expressed by Nero Wolfe in the 1942 novella "Not Quite Dead Enough".

On August 9, 1942, Stout conducted the first of 62 wartime broadcasts ofOur Secret WeapononCBS Radio.The idea for the counterpropaganda series had been that of Sue Taylor White, wife ofPaul White,the first director ofCBS News.Research was done under White's direction. "Hundreds of Axis propaganda broadcasts, beamed not merely to the Allied countries but to neutrals, were sifted weekly", wrote Stout's biographer John McAleer. "Rex himself, for an average of twenty hours a week, pored over the typewritten yellow sheets of accumulated data... Then, using a dialogue format – Axis commentators making their assertions, and Rex Stout, the lie detective, offering his refutations – he dictated to his secretary the script of the fifteen-minute broadcast." By November 1942, Berlin Radio was reporting that "Rex Stout himself has cut his own production in detective stories from four to one a year and is devoting the entire balance of his time to writing official war propaganda."Newsweekdescribed Stout as "stripping Axis short-wave propaganda down to the barest nonsensicals... There's no doubt of its success."

In September 1942, Stout defended FDR's policy of sending Japanese Americans to concentration camps in a debate with the Socialist civil libertarianNorman Thomas.Stout charged “that Japanese-Americans include more fifth columnists than any other comparable group in the United States.” When Thomas condemned the military's role as a “disgrace to our democracy” and comparable to “the powers of totalitarian dictators,” Stout responded that moving “Japanese-Americans inland hardly constitutes Totalitarianism.”

During the later part of the war and the post-war period, he also led theSociety for the Prevention of World War IIIwhich lobbied for a harsh peace for Germany. When the war ended, Stout became active in theUnited World Federalists.

House Committee on Un-American ActivitieschairmanMartin Diescalled him a Communist, and Stout is reputed to have said to him, "I hate Communists as much as you do, Martin, but there's one difference between us. I know what a Communist is and you don't."

Stout was one of many American writers closely watched byJ. Edgar Hoover's FBI. Hoover considered him an enemy of the bureau and either a Communist or a tool of Communist-dominated groups. Stout's leadership of theAuthors League of Americaduring theMcCarthy erawas particularly irksome to the FBI. About a third of Stout's FBI file is devoted to his 1965 novelThe Doorbell Rang.

Later years and death

In later years, Stout alienated some readerswith his hawkish stance on theVietnam Warand with the contempt forcommunismexpressed in certain of his works. The latter viewpoint is given voice in the 1952 novella "Home to Roost"(first published as" Nero Wolfe and the Communist Killer ") and most notably in the 1949 novel,The Second Confession.In this work, Archie and Wolfe express their dislike for "Commies", while at the same time Wolfe arranges for the firing of a virulently anti-Communist broadcaster, likening him to Hitler and Mussolini.

Stout continued writing until just before his death. He died on October 27, 1975, at the age of 88 at his estate, High Meadow, on the New York/Connecticut border.

Reception and influence

Rex Stout in 1973

If he had done nothing more than to create Archie Goodwin, Rex Stout would deserve the gratitude of whatever assessors watch over the prosperity of American literature. For surely Archie is one of the folk heroes in which the modern American temper can see itself transfigured.

— Jacques Barzun

Awards and recognition

• In his seminal 1941 work,Murder for Pleasure,crime fiction historian Howard Haycraft included the first two Nero Wolfe novels,Fer-de-LanceandThe League of Frightened Men,in his list of the most influential works of mystery fiction.
• In 1958, Rex Stout became the 14th president of theMystery Writers of America.
• In 1959, Stout received the MWA's prestigious Grand Master Award, which represents the pinnacle of achievement in the mystery field.
• In January 1969, theCrime Writers Associationselected Stout as recipient of its Silver Dagger Award forThe Father Hunt,which it named "the best crime novel by a non-British author in 1969."
• The Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated Best Mystery Series of the Century at theBouchercon XXXImystery convention, and Rex Stout was nominated Best Mystery Writer of the Century.
• In 2014, Rex Stout was selected to theNew York State Writers Hall of Fame.

Cultural references

"A number of the paintings ofRené Magritte(1898–1967), the internationally famous Belgian painter, are named after titles of books by Rex Stout, "wrote Harry Torczyner, Magritte's attorney and friend."He read Hegel, Heidegger and Sartre, as well asDashiell Hammett,Rex Stout andGeorges Simenon,"theTimes Higher EducationSupplementwrote of Magritte. "Some of his best titles were 'found' in this way."Magritte's 1942 paintingLes compagnons de la peur( "The Companions of Fear" ) bears the title given toThe League of Frightened Men(1935) when it was published in France byGallimard(1939). It is one of Magritte's series of "leaf-bird" paintings, created during the Nazi occupation of Brussels. It depicts a stormy, mountainous landscape in which a cluster of plants has metamorphosed into a group of vigilant owls.

Stout is also mentioned in Ian Fleming's James Bond bookOn Her Majesty's Secret Service(1963).

Rex Stout Archive

The Rex Stout Archive anchorsBoston College's collection of American detective fiction.The collection was donated by the Stout family and includes manuscripts, correspondence, legal papers, personal papers, publishing contracts, photographs, and ephemera. It also includes first editions, international editions, and archived reprints of Stout's books, as well as volumes from Stout's personal library, many of which found their way into Nero Wolfe's office. The comprehensive archive at Burns Library also includes the extensive personal collection of Stout's official biographer John McAleer, the Rex Stout collection of bibliographer Judson C. Sapp, and a collection of Nero Wolfe's magazine appearances donated by Ed Price.

Bibliography

Main article:Rex Stout bibliography

Select radio credits

Date	Network	Length	Series	Detail
February 28, 1939	NBC	30 min.	Information Please	Cast:Clifton Fadiman(host),John Kieran,Franklin P. Adams,Heywood Broun,Rex Stout
March 28, 1939	NBC	30 min.	Information Please	Cast: Clifton Fadiman (host), John Kieran, Franklin P. Adams, Rex Stout, Moss Hart
August 29, 1939	NBC	30 min.	Information Please	Cast: Clifton Fadiman (host), John Kieran, Franklin P. Adams, Rex Stout,Wilfred J. Funk
September 26, 1939	NBC	30 min.	Information Please	Cast: Clifton Fadiman (host), John Kieran, Franklin P. Adams, Rex Stout,Carl Van Doren
September 27, 1940			Democratic Women's Day	Radio address from a dinner sponsored by the Women's National Democratic Club Speakers:Eleanor Roosevelt,Thornton Wilder,Robert Sherwood,Edna Ferber,Rex Stout,Alice Duer Miller,Dr. Frank Kingdon,Katharine Hepburn,Marc Connelly,Elmer Rice,Frank Sullivan,Henry Curren
April 17, 1941	NBC	15 min.	Speaking of Liberty	Stories of memorable events in the lives of America's founders First of an estimated 29 weekly broadcasts continuing through December 11, 1941, produced in cooperation with the Council for Democracy Guests includeLouis Adamic,Herbert Agar,Pearl S. Buck,Erskine Caldwell,Carl Carmer,Stuart Chase,Frank Craven,Carl Crow,Ève Curie,Max Eastman,Edward Ellsberg,Clifton Fadiman,Louis Fischer,Dorothy Canfield Fisher,Frank Gervasi,Florence Jaffray Harriman,Fannie Hurst,Margaret Leech,Walter Millis,Bertrand Russell,John R. Tunis,Carl Van Doren,Pierre van Paassen,Thornton Wilder,Alexander Woollcott,Lin Yutang Cast: Rex Stout (host), Milton Cross and others (announcers)
April 18, 1941	NBC	30 min.	Information Please	Cast: Clifton Fadiman (host), John Kieran, Franklin P. Adams, Rex Stout, Henry H. Curran (chief magistrate of Manhattan)
September 26, 1941	NBC	30 min.	Speaking of Books	Discussion ofJan Valtin'sOut of the Night,from the 51st annual conference of theNew York Library Association Cast:Irita Van Doren,Lewis Gannett,Rex Stout, Jan Valtin
January 1942	CBS	30 min.	Invitation to Learning	Discussion ofThe Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Cast:Mark Van Doren(moderator), Rex Stout,Jacques Barzun,Elmer Davis
April 5, 1942	Blue	15 min.	Behind the Mike	Stout is interviewed by hostGraham McNamee
April 8, 1942	WMCA	15 min.	The Voice of Freedom	Broadcasting anonymously, Stout inaugurates this weekly commentary series presented byFreedom House "Program packs plenty of punch… handled expertly by 'Mister X'" (Billboard)
August 9, 1942	CBS	15 min.	Our Secret Weapon	Counterpropaganda series in which "lie detective" Stout rebuts the most entertainingAxisshortwave lies of the week First of 62 weekly broadcasts continuing through October 8, 1943, produced byPaul Whitefor CBS and Freedom House Cast: Rex Stout, Paul Luther, Guy Repp, Ted Osborne, John Dietz (director)
January 23, 1943	CBS	30 min.	The People's Platform	"Is Germany Incurable?" Writers' War Board panel discussion marking the tenth anniversary of Adolf Hitler's rise to power Cast: Rex Stout, Alexander Woollcott,Marcia Davenport,Hunter College president George Shuster,Brooklyn CollegepresidentHarry Gideonse Woollcott is stricken midway through the broadcast and dies a few hours later
March 30, 1943	Mutual	30 min.	This Is Our Enemy	Series produced by Frank Telford for theUnited States Office of War Information "Axis Propaganda Methods" Stout introduces dramatizations that show how the enemy uses propaganda to weaken American morale Cast: Rex Stout,Jackson Beck,Arnold Moss,Charlotte Holland, Irene Hubbard, Lenny Hoffman,Peter Capell,Ian Martin, Bill Martin, Ed Latimer,Ted Jewett,Guy Repp, Nathan Van Cleve (composer, conductor)
April 27, 1943	Mutual	30 min.	This Is Our Enemy	"March to the Gallows" Stout addresses the audience at the end of a program dramatizing the stories of well-known traitors includingVidkun Quisling
October 13, 1943	WHN	30 min.	Author Meets the Critics	A discussion with John Roy Carlson, author ofUnder Cover: My Four Years in the Nazi Underworld of America Cast:Max Lerner,Victor Riesel,Rex Stout
February 2, 1944	WHN	30 min.	Author Meets the Critics	A discussion withLouis Nizer Cast: John K. M. McCaffrey (host), Russell Hill, Rex Stout
March 5, 1944	ABC	30 min.	Wake Up America	"What Should Be Done With Defeated Germany?" Debate between Rex Stout and Paul Hagen,author ofGermany After Hitler
October 24, 1944	ABC	30 min.	Wake Up America	"Does Any National Emergency Justify a Fourth Term?" Rex Stout and commentator Upton Close take questions
March 24, 1945	CBS	30 min.	A Report to the Nation	Program includes an interview with Rex Stout after his return from Europe, where he asked Germans what they thought about democracy Cast:John Daly(host),Richard C. Hottelet,Rex Stout,Brian Aherne,Clare Boothe Luce
1945	Synd	30 min.	Win the Peace	Wartime roundtable discussion about the proposals for a United Nations organization Cast: Edgar Ansel Morra (foreign correspondent), Harry Gideonese, Rex Stout,Virginia Gildersleeve,William Agar (acting president of Freedom House)
December 5, 1946	Mutual	30 min.	Author Meets the Critics	Cast: John K. M. McCaffrey (host),Paul Gallico,Virgilia Peterson, Rex Stout
January 2, 1949	NBC	30 min.	Author Meets the Critics	A discussion ofLarks in the Popcornwith guest authorH. Allen Smith Cast: John K. M. McCaffrey (host),Eloise McElhone,Rex Stout
October 12, 1950		30 min.	United World Federalists	Report on the fourth annual meeting of the United World Federalists Cast: Jean Putnam, Rex Stout,William O. Douglas,Raymond Gram Swing
July 30, 1951	NBC	45 min.	The Eleanor Roosevelt Program	Program includes an interview with Rex Stout
March 11, 1965	WNYC	30 min.	Authors and Critics Gathering	"What do I think about book reviews and book reviewers?" Stout discusses his concerns about the copyright act and asks critics to write about it Cast: Rex Stout (moderator),C. D. B. Bryan,Ralph Ellison,Muriel Resnick,Barbara Tuchman,Edward Albee
February 14, 1966	WNYC	60 min.	Book and Author Luncheon	Program includes Rex Stout discussingThe Doorbell Rang Cast: Maurice Dolbier (host), Helen Hayes, William O. Douglas

Select television credits

Date	Network	Length	Series	Detail
February 16, 1949	ABC	30 min.	Critic at Large	"Are Detective Stories Getting Better or Worse?" ModeratorJohn Mason Brown;guests Clifton Fadiman, Howard Haycraft, Rex Stout andJ. Scott Smart
November 8, 1951	DuMont	30 min.	Crawford Mystery Theatre	"The Case of the Devil's Heart" Mystery writers and other guests watch a 20-minute filmed episode of the 1947–48 seriesPublic Prosecutorand guess the solution ModeratorWarren Hull;guest panelists Rex Stout,Glenn LanganandBetty Buehler
December 9, 1956	ABC	90 min.	Omnibus	"The Fine Art of Murder" (40 minutes) "A homicide as SirArthur Conan Doyle,Edgar Allan Poe[and] Rex Stout would variously present it "(Time) Cast:Alistair Cooke(host),Gene Reynolds(Archie Goodwin), Robert Eckles (Nero Wolfe),James Daly(narrator),Dennis Hoey(Arthur Conan Doyle), Felix Munro (Edgar Allan Poe),Herbert Voland(M. Dupin), Jack Sydow, Rex Stout WriterSidney Carrollreceived the 1957Edgar Awardfor Best Episode in a TV Series Episode is in the collection of the Library of Congress (VBE 2397–2398)
February 3, 1957	CBS	60 min.	Odyssey	"The Baker Street Irregulars" A program devoted to Sherlock Holmes that includes the first look insideThe Baker Street Irregulars,with film of the organization's annual dinner January 11, 1957 Includes remarks by Stout, and a dramatization of "The Red Headed League" recorded at a special BSI meeting December 14, 1956, at Cavanagh's Restaurant, New York City Preserved on kinescope Cast:Charles Collingwood(host), Rex Stout,Richard H. Hoffmann,Edgar W. Smith,Red Smith,Michael Clarke Laurence (Sherlock Holmes), Donald Marye (Wilson), Harry Gresham (Hargreave)
September 16, 1957	CBS	60 min.	Studio One	"First Prize for Murder" At the annual banquet of the Mystery Writers of America, novelist Nathaniel Arch fails to appear to receive his award. A stranger shows up who is anxious to find the writer, who is suspected of murder. Live drama by Phil Reisman, from an idea byJohn D. MacDonald Cast:Darren McGavin(Johnny Quigg),Robert Simon,Barbara O'Neil(Mrs. Cory),Jonathan Harris(Master of Ceremonies),Philip Coolidge(Severns),Colleen Dewhurst,Larry Hagman,Ross Martin Appearing as themselves are Rex Stout,George Harmon Coxe,Brett Halliday,Frances andRichard LockridgeandGeorges Simenon
April 5, 1959	CBS	30 min.	The Last Word	Cast:Bergen Evans(host), Rex Stout, editorRussell Lynes
September 2, 1969	ABC	60 min.	The Dick Cavett Show	Dick Cavett's guests include Rex Stout
1973	WTTW	30 min.	Book Beat	"Book Beat On Tour" Chicago journalist Robert Cromie records an interview with Stout at his home in Brewster, New York, on April 24, 1973 Program airs onpublic televisionstations nationwide beginning in November 1973

External links

• Rex StoutatAllMovie
• The Wolfe Pack,official site of the Nero Wolfe Society
• Merely a Genius...,Winnifred Louis' fan site dedicated to Nero Wolfe including a complete annotated bibliography
• Timeobituary (November 10, 1975)
• John J. McAleer: The Making of Rex Stout's BiographyArchived2008-12-10 at theWayback Machine(Mark Fullmer)
• Stout's radicalism, the FBI, the books (from theDaily Bleed Calendar)
• a comprehensive overview of Rex Stout's work and biographyArchived2003-02-10 at theWayback Machine
• Forty years with Nero Wolfe(January 12, 2009) byTerry Teachout
• wikicollections of quotationsfrom Rex Stout's works
• Ten Rex Stout storiesArchived2008-05-11 at theWayback Machine(1913–1917) atThe EServer(Iowa State University)
• Works by Rex StoutatProject Gutenberg
• Works by or about Rex StoutatInternet Archive
• Works by Rex StoutatLibriVox(public domain audiobooks)
• Bibliography of Stout's first editions in the United Kingdom
• Wikiquote: Quote of the Day,December 1, 2013
• Rex Stout papersat John J. Burns Library,Boston College(PDF)