In the late 1920s, Rex Stout retired from the school banking system he had created with his brother, Robert, to write full time. His early works were not mystery stories; most were psychological novels that were acclaimed to mixed reviews. After the Great Depression wiped out a substantial portion of his savings, he turned to mystery fiction and eventually devoted his commercial writing time to Nero Wolfe stories. Use the links below to review his non-Wolfe writings, including a couple by Archie and a cook book:

Non-Mystery Novels—–1929 – 1938
(4 Psychological Novels, 1 Thriller, 2 Romantic Novels)
(don't miss the scans of the cover art of these publications)

Publisher(s) & Date Title Genre | Comment
1929, The Vanguard Press How Like A God novel/psychological
Read a Review2011 Review of How Like a God from Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine
1930, The Vanguard Press Seed on the Wind novel/psychological
1931, The Vanguard Press Golden Remedy novel/psychological
1933, Farrar & Rinehart Forest Fire novel/psychological
1934, Farrar & Rinehart The President Vanishes

novel/thriller
(originally published anonymously due to its controversial political subject matter))

Read
1935, Farrar & Rinehart O Careless Love! novel/romance
1938, Farrar & Rinehart Mr. Cinderella novel/romance

Non-Wolfe Mystery Fiction – 1937 – 1941
6 Mystery Novels, 2 mystery short stories, 1 Adventure Novel
(don't miss the scans of the cover art of these publications)

Pub. Date/ Publisher Title Genre | Comment
1937, Farrar & Rinehart The Hand in the Glove Novel / Dol Bonner  Mystery
(UK title: Crime on Her Hands)
1939, Farrar & Rinehart Mountain Cat Novel / Adventure
1939, Farrar & Rinehart Double for Death Novel / Tecumseh Fox Mystery
1939, Farrar & Rinehart Red Threads Novel / Mystery featuring Inspector Cramer
1940, Farrar & Rinehart Bad for Business Novel / Tecumseh Fox Mystery
1941, Farrar & Rinehart Broken Vase Novel / Tecumseh Fox Mystery
1941, Farrar & Rinehart Alphabet Hicks
or
The Sound of Murder
Novel / Alphabet Hicks Mystery
1946, Creative Age Press Rue Morgue No. 1
Anthology of 19 mystery stories
Edited by Rex Stout and Louis Greenfield
1953, various (see comments column)
  • Tough Cop's Gift
  • Santa Claus Beat
  • Cop's Gift
  • Christmas Beat
  • Nobody Deserved Justice
  • Original print publication: "Tough Cop's Gift," in
    *What's New? Christmas Annual"  [a publication of Abbott Laboratories], 1953.]
  • Mystery for Christmas, Edited by Cynthia Manson, 1990, Davis Publications, Inc.
  • Anthologies:
    • Butcher, Baker, Murder Maker (1954)
    • Dolls are Murder (1957)
    • Cream of the Crime (1962 and 199?)
    • Mystery for Christmas (1990 and 1999)
    • Merry Murder (1994)
    • Murder Most Merry (2002)
    • the Folio Society's 4-volume anthology Great Stories of  Crime and Detection, Vol. 3
  • Ellery Queen publications: 
    • EQ's Mystery Magazine, Jan. 1956 
    • EQ's Anthology #2 (1961)
    • EQ's Lethal Black Book (1965)
    • EQ's Mini-Mysteries (1969)
    Miscellaneous:
    • The Saint Magazine, Aug., 1959
    • Scholastic Scope, 197

Click to Read "Santa Clause Beat"

1955, Manhunt Magazine, April 1955 His Own Hand
or By His Own Hand
or Curtain Line
Alphabet Hicks & Sgt. Purley Stebbins
Also published in various anthologies, including Eat, Drink,and Be Buried.

Click to Read "By His Own Hand"

Click to ReadIntroduction by Rex Stout to the anthology including Eat, Drink,and Be Buried

MYSTERY MAGAZINE COMPILATIONS
1945-1947 & 1954
(don't miss the scans, below,of the cover art of these publications)


Nine volumes were published between 1945 and 1947, changing names three times: "Rex Stout Mystery Magazine," "Rex Stout Mystery Quarterly, Rex Stout Mystery Monthly. Rex Stout wrote an introduction for each volume, available for reading (see link below). In 1954 three additional mystery magazines were published as "Nero Wolfe Mystery Magazine."
Pub. Date/ Publisher Title Genre
1945-47, Avon Detective-Mysteries, Inc. Rex Stout Mystery Magazines  (9 issues with varying names ("Magazine," "Quarterly" & "Monthly") Periodical
1945, Avon Detective-Mysteries, Inc. Rex Stout Mystery Quarterly (No. 1 & 2 of 9)
Louis Greenfield - Editor: Rex Stout Mystery Quarterly
Periodical
1946, Avon Detective-Mysteries, Inc. Rex Stout Mystery Magazine (Mo. 3, 4, 5 of 9)
Louis Greenfield - Editor: Rex Stout Mystery Magazine
Periodical
1946-1947, Avon Detective-Mysteries, Inc. Rex Stout's Mystery Monthly (No. 6, 7, 8, 9 of 9)
Herbert Williams - Editor: Rex Stout's Mystery Monthly
Periodical
1954, Hillman Publications
(Cover Scans available)
Nero Wolfe Mystery Magazine (Vol. 1, Nos. 1, 2, 3)
Stout, Rex, Supervising Editor
Periodical

Click to ReadNY Times Announcement: Rex Stout Mystery Quarterly, Dec. 6 1944

Click to Read Read the Introductions by Rex Stout for the nine Rex Stout Mystery Magazines

Click to ReadRead the Tables of Contents of the nine Rex Stout Mystery Magazines and three Nero Wolfe Mystery Magazines

1959, Macmillan Four Five & Six By Tey: A Shilling for Candles, The Daughter of Time, The Singing Sands Click to Read Click to read the excerpt from the back cover.

Rex Stout's essay on Detective Fiction, included in (with an excerpt on the back cover) of Josephine Tey's posthumously published mystery anthology. Mr. Stout was an admirer of Tey, especially her final book, The Daughter of Time, included in this anthology, which exonerated Richard III of his crimes.

OTHER REX STOUT WRITINGS – 1929 – 1975
(don't miss the scans of the cover art of these publications)

Recent Pub. Date Title & Contents Format/Genre
1936, The New Masses, December 15, 1936 "A Good Character for a Novel" ReadMagazine
"A Good Character for a Novel" concerns a man who will debate on any side of a discussion, "proving that the ability to argue both sides of a question can have alarming consequences." Rex Stout's FBI file may contain references to this story since The New Masses was a Marxist publication.

1942, Alfred A. Knopf The Illustrious Dunderheads Anthology, Stout, Rex (editor)
An anthology of brief passages from pre-Pearl Harbor isolationist and anti-war speeches and writings of U.S. congressmen, as well as itemized voting records of those who tended to vote against the Roosevelt administration on military and defense matters. (Many of the supposedly imbecilic quotations, complaining about supplying military aid to Josef Stalin, do not seem so dunderheaded today, e.g. Karl Mundt: "The prospect of a Hitler victory over Russia is dreary enough. But how much brighter for us is the possibility of a Stalin victory?")

September 15, 1963, Life Magazine "Why Nero Wolfe Likes Orchids" Click to ReadStout, Rex [literary agent for Archie Goodwin]

Concluding a feature story titled "The Orchid" that was photographed by Alfred Eisenstaedt, Archie Goodwin "investigates and explains the deep satisfactions of his boss' orchid-fixation." (The article was reprinted in Corsage" A Bouquet of Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe, edited by Michael Bourne.)
January, 1966, Ramparts Magazine "The Case of the Spies Who Weren't" Click to ReadMagazine, Stout, Rex [literary agent for Archie Goodwin]

"Archie Goodwin reports that the previous evening Nero Wolfe and "Rex Stout, my literary agent," filled 27 pages in his notebook with their discussion of Invitation to an Inquest by Walter and Miriam Schneir, a recently published book that they are reviewing for Ramparts magazine. Since their review must be fewer than 3,000 words, Wolfe frowns and orders Archie to "Contract it. Cramp it."

I frowned back. "You cramp it. Or Stout. Let him earn his ten per cent. Dictate it."

Archie loses the argument and condenses their views on the book, which concerns the case against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. "
1973, Viking Press The Nero Wolfe Cook Book Edited by Rex Stout and the editors of the Viking Pres

Recipes and pertinent quotes from the corpus illustrated by vintage New York City photographs by John Muller, Andreas Feininger and others

Book Reviews by Rex Stout
(Click a title to read the review.)

Stout probably wrote many more reviews on commission or as a favor for his author-friends.
Send us any additional Stout-authored reviews that you come across.

Please visit Facsimile Dust Jackets to view and purchase more great jackets of Rex Stout first editions, including most of the Nero Wolfe stories.


  • How Like a God - First Ed. Facsimile Dust Jacket
  • How Like a God Facsimile First Ed Dust Jacket
  • How Like a God
  • How Like a God - back of paperback cover
  • How Like a God
  • Mr Cinderella Facsimile Dust Jacket
  • Mr_Cinderella Hard Cover Dust Jacket
  • Seed on the Wind Facsimile Dust Jacket
  • Forest Fire Facsimile Dust Jacket
  • Forest Fire Facsimile Dust Jacket
  • O Careless Love Facsimile Dust Jacket
  • O Careless Love
  • Golden Remedy Facsimile Dust Jacket
  • The President Vanishes
  • The President Vanishes Illustration 1
  • The President Vanishes Illustration 2
  • The President Vanishes
  • The President Vanishes
  • The President Vanishes Facsilmile Dust Jacket
  • The President Vanishes in Russian (from Bklyn Public Library)
  • The Hand in the Glove-First Edition
  • The Hand in the Glove
  • The Hand in the Glove
  • The Hand in the Glove
  • Bad for Business / Tecumseh Fox
  • v
  • Bad for Business / Tecumseh Fox
  • Bad for Business / Tecumseh Fox
  • Bad for Business / Tecumseh Fox
  • The Broken Vase / Tecumseh Fox
  • The Broken Vase / Tecumseh Fox
  • The Broken Vase / Tecumseh Fox
  • Broken Vase / Tecumseh Fox
  • Double for Death 1939--First Edition / Tecumseh Fox
  • Double for Death / Tecumseh Fox
  • Double for Death / Tecumseh Fox
  • Double for Death / Tecumseh Fox
  • Alphabet Hicks / The Sound_of_Murder - First Edition 1
  • Alphabet Hicks / The Sound_of_Murder - First Edition 2
  • Alphabet Hicks / The Sound_of_Murder
  • Alphabet Hicks / The Sound_of_Murder
  • His Own Hand (Alphabet Hicks short story from Manhunt Magazine)
    Also published as: By His Own Hand and Curtain Line
  • Mountain Cat Murders (Dell printing)
  • Mountain Cat Murders (Dell printing)
  • Mountain Cat Murders
  • Red Threads with Inspector Cramer
  • Red Threads with Inspector Cramer
  • Red Threads with Inspector Cramer
  • Red Threads with Inspector Cramer
  • Red Threads with Inspector Cramer
  • Red Threads with Inspector Cramer
  • Nero Wolfe Mystery Magazine No 1 of 9
  • Nero Wolfe Mystery Magazine No 2 of 9
  • Nero Wolfe Mystery Magazine No 3 of 9
  • Rex Stout Mystery Quarterly No 1
  • Rex Stout Mystery Quarterly No 2
  • Rex Stout Mystery Magazine No 3
  • Rex Stout Mystery Magazine CANADA
  • Rex Stout Mystery Magazine No 4
  • Rex Stout Mystery Monthly No 5
  • Rex Stout Mystery Monthly No 6
  • Rex Stout Mystery Monthly No 7
  • Rex Stout Mystery Monthly No 8
  • Rex Stout Mystery Monthly No 9
  • Eat Drink and Be Buries -- Rex Stout Editor of mystery anthology
  • Rue Morgue Mystery Anthology Edited by Rex Stout & Louis Greenfield
  • Santa Claus Beat / Tough Cop's Gift (EQMM-V27N1_No146_1956-01)
  • The Cae of the Spies Who Weren't
  • The Illustrious Dunderheads
  • Stout Essay "On Writing Detective Fiction" (excerpt on dust jacket of Tey anthology)
  • Why Nero Wolfe Likes Orchids Essay by Archie Goodwin from Life Magazine
  • Ruth Stout Gardening
  • Ruth Stout Company Coming
  • Ruth Stout Gardening Video
How Like a God - First Ed. Facsimile Dust Jacket
How Like a God - First Ed. Facsimile Dust Jacket