Rex Stout Trivia

1. In which story do we learn how Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin initially got together?

From Quiz Introduction To Nero Wolfe, Part II

Answer: Fourth Of July Picnic

In "Fourth Of July Picnic" (published in "And Four To Go"), Wolfe and Archie are at a restaurant workers' union picnic where Wolfe is to deliver a speech because of his association with Rusterman's Restaurant. An organizer of the picnic is murdered and the body is discovered by Wolfe. Through a set of odd circumstances, Wolfe and Archie are the prime suspects. They escape to a friend's apartment where Wolfe manages to get the murderer to incriminate himself. At the apartment, Archie provides a brief autobiography: "Born in Ohio. Public high school graduate, pretty good at geometry and football, graduated with honor but no honors. Went to college two weeks, decided it was childish, came to New York and got a job guarding a pier, shot and killed two men and was fired, was recommended to Nero Wolfe for a chore he wanted done, did it, was offered a full-time job by Mr. Wolfe, took it, still have it."

From Quiz Introduction To Nero Wolfe, Part I

Answer: 72

Between 1934 and 1974, Rex Stout wrote 72 Nero Wolfe cases. Of those, 33 were novels and 39 were novellas or short stories. Stout was a prolific author in addition to his Wolfe books. To see his full range of writings, please visit www.nerowolfe.org.

From Quiz The Many Quirks of Nero Wolfe

Answer: He virtually never left his house on business.

Wolfe was famously immobile, weighing in the neighborhood of 280 pounds and overly fond of the creature comforts and routines in his home. He rarely left his home for any reason, and especially not on business - with a few notable exceptions, like the time (in "The Black Mountain") he and his assistant Archie traveled to the Central European country of Montenegro to find the murderer of Wolfe's best friend, Marko Vukcic.

From Quiz "Over My Dead Body": a Nero Wolfe Classic

Answer: "Thank God"

Neya Tormic used the phrase when she met Wolfe and told him she wanted to hire him to investigate an incident at her workplace. Wolfe didn't ask for (or need) a translation, but Archie did.

From Quiz Nero Wolfe's World

Answer: Egypt

Wolfe alluded to this house once, and mentioned one or two times that he spent time in Egypt when he was younger and more mobile, but not much else is revealed to the reader about the house in Egypt, or what Wolfe did there.

From Quiz Archie Goodwin, Nero Wolfe's Amanuensis

Answer: Chillicothe, Ohio

Archie was reared by his mother in Chillicothe. We never heard anything about his father or any siblings, although he once invented a wife and a slew of children when a young lady began to show more interest in him than he was comfortable with!

From Quiz Nero Wolfe's "Gambit"

Answer: Burning a dictionary in his fireplace

Nero Wolfe was tearing pages out of the latest edition of "Webster's International Dictionary, Unabridged" and tossing them into the fire. What was the reason for Wolfe's apparent eccentric behavior? He thought it was guilty of deliberately murdering the English language.

From Quiz Tecumseh Fox by Rex Stout

Answer: Varnish had been poured inside the violin, deadening the sound

The author makes the point that a concert violinist must be a strong man with muscles of steel to perform. My own thoughts give credit to the many women who have mastered this instrument - they may not look like athletes, but they certainly are.

From Quiz Nero Wolfe by Rex Stout #3

Answer: a room with naked pictures of women

The apartment was managed by the Perez family whose daughter was killed because she had made drawings of the people who had gone to that room.

From Quiz Nero Wolfe by Rex Stout #2

Answer: an adopted daughter

Nero Wolfe's suspicion that a German agent killed a British agent is expressed as "Do you suppose the attack on Ludlow was the eagle clawing the lion?"

From Quiz Nero Wolfe by Rex Stout #1

Answer: javelins

He used 5 darts on a board with areas marked as a deck of cards with the center as a joker to make a poker hand. Archie quit after losing too much money.

From Quiz The Nero Wolfe Saga Part II

Answer: golf club

From Quiz The Nero Wolfe Saga - Part I

Answer: A 7th of a ton

Seventh of a ton - about 286 lb.

From Quiz Introduction To Nero Wolfe, Part II

Answer: Reading

Wolfe is an avid reader who has about 1200 volumes in the floor-to-ceiling cases in his office ("Gambit"). In "Plot It Yourself," Archie Goodwin comments: "I divide the books Nero Wolfe reads into four grades: A,B,C, and D. If...he picks up his current book and opens to his place before he rings for [refreshment], and if his place is marked with a thin strip of gold, five inches long and an inch wide, the book is an A. If he picks up the book before he rings, but his place is marked with a piece of paper, it is a B. If he rings and then picks up the book and he has a dog-eared age to mark his place, it is a C. If he waits until [his refreshment arrives and is ready to consume it] and his place is dog-eared, it's a D. I would say that of the of the two hundred or so books he reads in a year not more than five or six get an A. In "Death Of A Dude", where Wolfe visits a ranch in Montana, Goodwin indicates that Wolf has brought with him: "Man's Rise to Civilization as Shown by the Indians of North America from Primeval Times to the Coming of The Industrial State" by Peter Farb; "The First Circle" by Alexander Solzhenitsyn; and a volume of Macaulay's "Essays".

From Quiz Introduction To Nero Wolfe, Part I

Answer: Fer-de-Lance

These were the first four novels published. "Fer-de-Lance" was published in 1934. In it, Nero Wolfe must deal with a golfer's violent and unexpected demise, the secrets of the other members of the foursome with whom he was playing, ancient enmity, a deadly snake, and an attempt on his life. In a very unusual ending, Wolfe seeks justice for all. "The League Of Frightened Men" was published in 1935, "The Rubber Band" in 1937, and "The Red Box" in 1937.

From Quiz Nero Wolfe "In the Best Families"

Answer: Two

Two violent deaths occur--one human, one canine. Both are stabbings, and the same weapon is used on each victim. The knife is later found to have come from the kitchen on the premises.

From Quiz The Many Quirks of Nero Wolfe

Answer: Forty minutes.

In "The Mother Hunt", Wolfe bets the client, Lucy Valdon, that she didn't know how long it took to scramble an egg. The conversation went as follows: "'Do you like eggs?' She laughed. She looked at me, so I laughed too. Wolfe scowled. 'Confound it, are eggs comical? Do you know how to scramble eggs, Mrs. Valdon?' 'Yes, of course.' 'To use Mr. Goodwin's favorite locution, one will get you ten that you don't. I'll scramble eggs for your breakfast and we'll see. Tell me forty minutes before you're ready.' Her eyes widened. 'Forty minutes?' 'Yes. I knew you didn't know.'"

From Quiz "Over My Dead Body": a Nero Wolfe Classic

Answer: A piece of paper, in a book

Miss Tormic evinced quite a bit of interest in the volume on the bookshelf entitled "United Yugoslavia". She asked Archie if Wolfe had read it, did he study it, or would he only read it once and then leave the book alone. The possible significance of such questions didn't really hit Archie, but they signaled to Wolfe an unusual interest in the book. Upon investigation, they found an important document had been inserted into it, presumably by Miss Tormic.

From Quiz Nero Wolfe's World

Answer: Doc Vollmer, MD

Doc Vollmer was within shouting distance (at one point it's said their homes were 60 yards apart) of Wolfe's house, very handy when clients or detectives needed a sedative or some stitching up! Wolfe appeared to like the doctor, who sometimes stayed for a drink after finishing his work.

From Quiz Archie Goodwin, Nero Wolfe's Amanuensis

Answer: Major

He'd been Major Goodwin three whole days when he suggested to the brass that they promote him to Colonel. He had a fair amount of brass of his own...

From Quiz Nero Wolfe's "Gambit"

Answer: Poisoned with arsenic

Paul Jerin's one talent was for playing chess, and he was in his element that night at the Gambit Club. Jerin was playing a mental marathon with twelve club members who had chess boards set up in another room. Four messengers carried the moves back and forth between Jerin and his opponents. Jerin's drink of choice was hot chocolate. Who could blame the police for thinking that his hot chocolate had been spiked with arsenic, but had it?

From Quiz Tecumseh Fox by Rex Stout

Answer: It was missing

A group of people, Tecumseh Fox included, had contributed the money to purchase the violin for the young artist. It had been purchsed for $36,000, quite a sum in pre-World War II USA.

From Quiz Nero Wolfe by Rex Stout #3

Answer: towels

Priscilla, her maid, and her friend are all killed because they would know that the man who claimed to be her former husband was an imposter.

From Quiz Nero Wolfe by Rex Stout #2

Answer: writing novels

Archie reads in the newspaper that Chapin is on trial for obscenity and his purpose in writing the book was that he had murdered and he needed to talk about it.

From Quiz Nero Wolfe by Rex Stout #1

Answer: Stenophone

Written just after World War II; the player only dictation machine weighs 60 pounds!

From Quiz The Nero Wolfe Saga Part II

Answer: A visit to the city morgue

Wolfe visits the NYC morgue to place two coins (dinars) on the eyes of his his dead friend, Marko Vukcic, in fulfillment of a long-ago pledge.

From Quiz The Nero Wolfe Saga - Part I

Answer: West 35th Street

Between 9th and 10th Avenues

From Quiz Introduction To Nero Wolfe, Part I

Answer: West 35th Street

Although Stout's use of West 35th Street is consistent, the house number is not. Most numbers are in the 900 block: for example, 902 in "Murder By The Book"; 914 in "Too Many Women"; 918 in "The Red Box"; and 938 in "Death Of A Doxy". But "Too Many Clients" has the number as 618.

From Quiz The Many Quirks of Nero Wolfe

Answer: He hated and feared them.

Wolfe rabidly distrusted cars, although he always owned one - usually a black Heron sedan, which he never drove. His assistant Archie Goodwin drove his cars; if Wolfe was riding with him, the experience was generally tense as Wolfe barked unnecessary warnings and clung to the strap by the window or the seat in front of him (he always sat in the back seat).

From Quiz "Over My Dead Body": a Nero Wolfe Classic

Answer: Theft of diamonds

Nat Driscoll, a customer at the fencing studio where Misses Tormic and Lovchen were employed, had brought a pocketful of diamonds to the studio and left them in a locker, from which he later reported them missing.

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Last Updated Nov 16 2024 5:46 AM

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