John McAleer, "Rex Stout: A Biography"

Kirkus Reviews
Treating the late (in 1975, at 89), great Rex Stout to a 500-page biography is like crowning Fred Astaire with a solid gold top hat: very ennobling, but how's the man supposed to dance? And dance is what a Stout biography should do, to keep up with the career-switching, cause-embracing, book-producing stamina of the creator of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin: child math whiz, sailor, magazine fictioneer (Justice Ends at Home, p. 247), mastermind of the lucrative kiddiebanking Educational Thrift Service, publisher, defender of authors' rights, WW II's radio "lie detective" and Hate-the-Germans propagandist, gardener, chef, and Baker Street highly-Irregular ("Watson was a Woman").

McAleer, beneficiary of Stout's authorization, cooperation, and comments, has lavished every virtue on this project except that of selectivity; if Rex did it, said it, heard it, or received it, it's there—in detail. And, despite careful analysis of the psycho-sexual pre-Nero novels and a pedantic, socio-metaphorical interpretation of the detective stories, he never demonstrates that Stout's oeuvre justifies such an approach or that his life deserves such grandiose frames ("Book V / The Years of Choice").

Still, some of the densely documented materials hold historical interest (the hair-splitting, wartime feuds) or are simply intriguing (number of days spent on each book). And, for the Neronian who's willing to wade through this overstuffed crackerjack box, there are dozens of prizes: the genesis of "Me Barzun, you vain," tributes to Stout from every camp, and a bounty of Stout observations (asked about future books at 87: "I've been told [this is a rumor], that after you're cremated it's pretty hard to write stories").

Authoritative beyond question or the call of duty—a belabor of love.

Contents

Illustrations
Foreword
Stout Family Tree
Introduction
In the Beginning

Book I: Heritage
 1. Rootstock and Genes—The Stouts
 2. Rootstock and Genes—The Todhunters

Book II: A Prairie Boyhood
 3. Cabbages and Kings
 4. John and Lucetta
 5. Stout Traits—Todhuntery Ways
 6. Everything Alive
 7. Hackberry Hall
 8. Mr. Brilliance
 9. Know-It-All in Knee Pants
 10. Dramatic Interlude

Book III: The Nomadic Years
 11. The Mayflower Years
 12. Logic and Life
 13. A Brownstone in New York
 14. Literary Apprenticeship
 15. Underground Novelist
 16. The Heart Has Reasons
 17. Crime Fiction

Book IV: A Liberal Awakening
 18. Melons and Millions
 19. Pied Piper of Thrift
 20. Civil Libertarian
 21. His Own Man
 22. Expatriate Novelist

Book V: The Years Of Choice
 23. Squire of High Meadow
 24. A Literary Farmer
 25. Stout Fellow
 26. Lazy Bloodhound
 27. Mystery Monger
 28. Commander over the Earth

Book VI: Minister Of Propaganda
 29. King's Gambit
 30. Nero Wolfe Gets Smaller
 31. Crusader by Inner Compulsion
 32. The Lie Detective
 33. Chairman Rex
 34. Hunting with the Hounds
 35. Ideological Racketeer
 36. A Man of Sovereign Parts

Book VII: Citizen Of The World
 37. Under Viking Sail
 38. A Superman Who Talks like a Superman
 39. Beyond High Meadow
 40. King Rex
 41. Watch Out for Rex Stout
 42. The King in Action
 43. More than a Duke
 44. Master of Mystery
 45. The Best We Have
 46. A Majesty's Life

Book VIII: A King's Ransom
 47. A Fish at Wolfe's Door
 48. Champion of Justice
 49. The One and True Paradigm
 50. A Man Who Gloriously Acts and Decides
 51. Nero Equals Archie
 52. Sage of High Meadow
 53. Hip Hooroy, You Bearded Boy

Notes
A Rex Stout Checklist
 Early Publications
  Poetry
  Novels
  Short Stories
 Later Publications
  Novels 1929–1975
  Novellas 1940–1964
  Short Stories 1936–1955
  Novella Collections
  Omnibus Volumes
  Edited Volumes
  Articles
  Forewords, Introductions, Prefaces, Jacket Essays
  Fugitive Verse
  Broadcasts in Print
  Reviews
 Interviews
 Selected Criticism
 Alternate Titles of Rex Stout Books
 Alternate Titles of Rex Stout Novellas and Short Stories
Acknowledgments
Index

Tags: qBiography, qMystery, qLiterature

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