100th Anniversary of Rex Stout's first detective novel (1913)
1. One of nine children, Rex Stout was born in INDIANA but grew up in KANSAS.
2. Before he took up writing, he served as a PURSER (OR YEOMAN) on the YACHT of President Theodore Roosevelt.
3. His first detective fiction, published in 1913, was Her Forbidden Knight.
4. It was serialized for five months in All-Story Magazine.
5. Rex Stout's last novel that was not a mystery was Mr. Cinderella, published in 1938.
75th Anniversary of Too Many Cooks (1938)
6. Of the Fifteen (quinze) maîtres, ten came to Kanawha Spa.
7. Sauce printemps: celery, chives, tarragon, peppercorn, thyme, parsley, chervil, shallots, and cayenne.
8. A character from this book, Paul Whipple, returns three decades later in A Right to Die.
9. The opening to Saul's telegram: NOT MENTIONED ANY PAPER.
10. In this part of the country, Archie says, Wolfe should be known as "WEROWANCE."
60th Anniversary of The Golden Spiders (1953)
11. The youngest victim in the Corpus: Pete Drossos.
12. At one point, Archie disguises himself as a mortician (funeral director)
13. …and Saul takes the role of a displaced person
14. Wolfe's description of the blackmail racket: “The most contemptible enterprise on record.”.
15. Maddox's litigation threat: “I'll replevy that ten thousand dollars.”
50th Anniversary of The Mother Hunt (1963)
16. Gazette feature headline: “WOMEN LOVE BABIES”
17. That headline draws attention to the carriage wheeled through Washington Square Park.
18. Button, button, who's got the button?
19. Nero Wolfe advises that one should scramble eggs for forty minutes.
20. Wolfe once becomes so irritated that he throws his suit jacket at Archie.
TWENTY TITLE TEASERS
(Each answer is the title of a Nero Wolfe novel or novella/short story)
1 Neither healthy nor on the prix fixe menu: “Poison à la Carte”
2 Could be part of a Chinese take-out order And Four To Go
3 The least desirable civil liberty A Right To Die
4 A piece of malfunctioning stereo equipment The Silent Speaker
5 More Fritzes than we know what to do with Too Many Cooks
6 Why I went to answer the door The Doorbell Rang
7 This will help you answer, “who's your daddy?” The Father Hunt
8 Not a complaint at your Werowance's day job Too Many Clients
9 Not a complaint of Archie Goodwin's Too Many Women
10 Vaccinated against a violent death “Immune to Murder”
11 End of the inning Three Men Out
12 The decedent is not declared intestate… Where There's a Will
13 The request that eventually no one refuses “Cordially Invited To Meet Death”
14 I'm not sure if the Second Amendment covers… “The Gun with Wings”
15 I admitted it once; do I have to give… The Second Confession
16 A ponytail necessity The Rubber Band
17 Why you shouldn't ask, “Did you hear the one about the murder?” “Murder Is No Joke”
18 My companion's on the wagon, so I'll have… Champagne for One
19 A killing, but done very properly Murder by the Book
20 We promise that tonight's banquet will end… Before Midnight