The Roots of Genius

Yesterday marked the 75th anniversary of the first Nero Wolfe novel. Rex Stout’s Fer-de-Lance, in which he introduced that “Falstaff of detectives,” Montenegro-born Wolfe, and his more handsome and significantly more energetic associate, Archie Goodwin, was published by Farrar & Rinehart on October 24, 1934. It’s a complicated novel spinning out from the disappearance of a metalworker and the bizarre demise of a college president on a golf course, but is definitely worth reading and a fine introduction to the rest of this acclaimed series.

Just a few weeks ago, I took the opportunity to re-read Fer-de-Lance myself (in a new, double-feature paperback edition from Bantam) and was as delighted with the experience as I remember being when I originally consumed that book 25 years ago.

Thank you, Mr. Stout.