{Review} Nero Wolfe: The Archie Goodwin Files by Marvin Kaye (editor)

When a few days ago I reviewed The Nero Wolfe Files, I was rather uncomplimentary regarding the limited amount of content and the quality of the content itself. Well, I am very pleased to report that in this subsequent book editor Marvin Kaye has rectified these shortcomings quite nicely. The new book is twice the size of the other and contains a much better selection of articles from The Gazette, the official publication of The Wolfe Pack, a society dedicated to exploring the nuances of that remarkable detective, his sidekick Archie and the author Rex Stout.

The book is composed of four sections. The first is a collection of articles about both the character himself and associated subjects, such as the Post Office, love and marriage, legal aspects of the Wolfe plots, orchids, and even references to the theatre in the stories. My favorite article in this section is "Nero Wolfe: Logomachizer", which discusses the roles of books in the Wolfe stories [editor Kaye notes that Logomachize means to contend with words].

The next section contains articles about Archie Goodwin, including rather obvious subjects as Archie's love life, his relationship to Nero, and not so obviously, an investigation to discern Goodwin's likely birthdate.

The third section's collection includes exploration into the actual location of Wolfe's brownstone, the role of Lon Cohen in the stories, the secretaries (good and bad), and the possible origin of Wolfe's nemesis Zeck.

The final section contains three short detective stories, a stage play and a sonnet, all featuring Nero and company. The story "Firecrackers" is a special treat as we finally read about the first meeting of Nero and Archie.

With such excellent content I happily recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Nero Wolfe, or even in the detective genre in general. Fair warning however, the book does contain many spoilers, but then people who get this book will most likely have already read most of the stories anyway!

Link to LibraryThing entry for this book

{Review} The Nero Wolfe Files by Marvin Kaye (editor)

Back in the 1970, fans of the Nero Wolfe stories by Rex Stout joined together and formed an organization called The Wolfe Pack to celebrate the author and his world famous detective (and not to forget Archie Goodwin!). They started publishing a quarterly journal called The Gazette and held a formal dinner every year, among other activities. In this book Marvin Kaye has collected items originally published in The Gazette. They range in diversity from the menu of the first "Black Orchid" dinner to texts of speeches given at the dinners to articles about Wolfe and Stout by Stout's biographer, plus many other interesting tidbits.

Unfortunately this book feels rather underdeveloped for the price. While most of the items included are interesting to some degree, there is not enough content to really satisfy a fan or to engage a casual reader. It is certainly recommended to those who are Nero Wolfe fans, or aspire to that status, but I would suggest that you try to find it at a cheaper price than the listed $15.95.

Link to LibraryThing entry for this book

Review (Sort of): The Nero Wolfe Novels by Rex Stout

I almost exclusively read non-fiction. However, there are times when the brain craves something less challenging, like a good detective novel. So a few years ago I started reading the Nero Wolfe novels, written by Rex Stout. Unlike many characters in the detective genre, Wolfe isn't a hard-bitten tough guy or an ex-cop following a different career path. Wolfe in fact is a well educated, very literate man with a vast intelligence and, at least according to his right hand man Archie Goodwin, a vast girth to accompany it. Goodwin is Wolfe's eyes, ears, legs and arms. Besides being handy with a gun and bare knuckles, Archie also takes shorthand, types well and has almost total recall. He is also an unashamed womanizer; well, rather it could be said that he hasn't seen the light of female equality. Overlooking this character flaw isn't too hard, especially when you remember that Stout started the series back in the 1930's when a socially enlightened gumshoe would have been considered not up to the task. Archie is also the narrator of the books, a literary device that works splendidly in this series.

Wolfe and Archie can call on the assistance of the associates, headed by Saul Panzer, perhaps the best shadow man that Archie has ever known. Mr Parker is Wolfe's attorney on call, always ready to bail Archie out of the local lockup or work up the legal rational to assist Wolfe in tippy-toeing round the edge of the law. The law is ably represented by Inspector Cramer and his men; Cramer and Wolfe had butted heads for decades, but they still respect one another, although Cramer lives for the day he can put Wolfe behind bars and keep him there.

As you might tell, I am very fond of these books, having read pretty much every one I could lay hold of. Some of the books are full length novels, some are collections of three or four novellas. Some aren't quite as good as the others, but there isn't a stinker in the bunch. And if you can, look for some of the short story collections. The originals appeared in various magazines throughout the years and occasionally are re-issued in collections.

One more thing. After the passing of Rex Stout, his estate authorized Robert Goldsbourgh to use the characters and style to write more Nero Wolfe novels. I have read one (The Silver Spire) and found it adequate. I might explore others of his, sometime.