"He is reluctant to work, accustomed to isolation from women. "Adamic describes the Montenegrin male as tall, commanding, dignified, courteous, hospitable," McAleer wrote. "I got the idea of making Wolfe a Montenegrin from Louis Adamic," Stout said, noting that everything he knew about Montenegrins he learned from Adamic's book, The Native's Return (1934), or from Adamic himself. Stout revealed the reason for the discrepancy in a 1940 letter cited by his authorized biographer, John McAleer: "In the original draft of Over My Dead Body Nero was a Montenegrin by birth, and it all fitted previous hints as to his background but violent protests from The American Magazine, supported by Farrar & Rinehart, caused his cradle to be transported five thousand miles." : 403 In the first chapter of Over My Dead Body (1939), Wolfe tells an FBI agent that he was born in the United States-a declaration at odds with all other references. The corpus implies or states that Nero Wolfe was born in Montenegro, with one exception. Nero Wolfe speaking to the black staff of Kanawha Spa in Too Many Cooks (1938), chapter 10 He abandons his cherished daily habits for a time and, despite his physical bulk, engages in strenuous outdoor activity in mountain terrain. That event occurs in The Black Mountain, when he leaves not only the brownstone but the United States to avenge the murder of his oldest friend. Wolfe's most remarkable departure from the brownstone is due to personal reasons, not to business, and thus does not violate the rule regarding the conduct of business away from the office. The invitation is extended to readers as well as to clients. Instead of spreading the principles of order and justice throughout his society, Wolfe imposes them dogmatically and absolutely within the walls of his house-the brownstone on West Thirty-Fifth Street-and he invites those who are troubled by an incomprehensible and threatening environment to enter the controlled economy of the house and to discover there the source of disorder in their own lives. He insists upon the point: under no circumstances will he leave his home or violate his routines in order to facilitate an investigation. Kenneth Van Dover in At Wolfe's Door: The Nero Wolfe Novels of Rex Stout: "Wolfe's most extravagant distinction is his extreme antipathy to literal extravagance. In a single short story written in 1947, Archie writes, "He weighs between 310 and 390, and he limits his physical movements to what he regards as the irreducible essentials." This was intended to indicate unusual obesity at the time of the first book (1934), especially through the use of the word "ton" as the unit of measure. Archie Goodwin, the narrator of the stories, frequently describes Wolfe as weighing "a seventh of a ton". That would have made it cumbersome and would seem to have centered attention on the characters rather than the stories." : 49Īccording to the same memo, Wolfe's height is 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) and his weight is 272 lb (123 kg). I didn't age the characters because I didn't want to. "Any reader who can't or won't do the same should skip them. "Those stories have ignored time for thirty-nine years," Stout told his authorized biographer, John McAleer.
According to a memo prepared by Rex Stout in 1949, Nero Wolfe's age is 56, although this is not directly stated in the stories. Nero Wolfe addressing the suspects in " Fourth of July Picnic" (1957)Īlthough the Nero Wolfe stories take place contemporaneously with their writing and depict a changing landscape and society, the principal characters in the corpus do not age.
#Nero creative collection pack 1 series
The Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated for Best Mystery Series of the Century at Bouchercon 2000, the world's largest mystery convention, and Rex Stout was a nominee for Best Mystery Writer of the Century. The stories have been adapted for film, radio, television and the stage. Stout published 33 novels and 41 novellas and short stories featuring Wolfe from 1934 to 1975, with most of them set in New York City. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sharp-witted, dapper young confidential assistant with an eye for attractive women, narrates the cases and does the legwork for the detective genius. He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky. Nero Wolfe is a brilliant, obese and eccentric fictional armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Carl Mueller illustrated " The Red Bull" (1938)
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