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Rex Stout, an American author from Indiana, is best known for his detective fiction. His most famous characters are Nero Wolfe, a Montenegrin armchair detective, and his clever assistant Archie Goodwin. Nero Wolfe, a middle-aged war veteran, seldom left his luxurious brownstone in New York City, relying on Archie for investigative work and personal insights into the individuals involved in their cases. The series featuring these characters spanned from 1934 to 1975. In 1985, Stout's final novella collection was published posthumously. He served as president of the Authors Guild for several years and briefly led the Mystery Writers of America (MWA), receiving their Grand Master Award in 1959.
Born in 1886 to a Quaker family in Noblesville, Indiana—a suburb of Indianapolis that grew rapidly in the late 1880s due to natural gas discoveries—Stout was the son of teacher John Wallace Stout and Lucetta Elizabeth Todhunter. His sister, Ruth Stout (1884–1980), was a horticulturist and author of several gardening books.
Although born in Indiana, Stout was mainly raised in Kansas after his family moved there during his childhood. Encouraged by his father, he developed strong reading skills early on, reportedly reading the entire Bible before starting grade school. In 1899, he won a state spelling bee championship.
Stout attended Topeka High School, a large public school in Topeka, Kansas, and later studied at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.
In 1906, he joined the United States Navy, serving as a yeoman on President Theodore Roosevelt’s yacht. After leaving the Navy in 1908, he held various jobs and began publishing poetry, with his first poem appearing in "The Smart Set" magazine in 1910. He soon transitioned to prose fiction.
Between 1912 and 1918, Stout published around 40 short stories and novellas across genres such as adventure, detective fiction, fantasy, romance, and science fiction, including early murder mystery novellas that reflected his interest in the genre.
Due to limited financial success in the 1910s, Stout invented a school banking system around 1916, allowing schools to track students’ savings. About 400 schools adopted this system, earning him royalties and a modest fortune that enabled extensive travel. He temporarily paused his writing career but planned to return once financially independent.
In 1926, Stout co-founded Vanguard Press and served as its president until 1928. The press initially focused on radical political works but later expanded to include fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and children’s literature, though it never became a major publisher. Stout lost much of his savings during the 1929 stock market crash but had resumed writing by then.
During the second phase of his career, Stout wrote the psychological story "How Like a God" (1929) and the political thriller "The President Vanishes" (1934), which depicted a U.S. president faking his disappearance to thwart a fascist-business coup. The novel gained significant attention and was adapted into a film.
Stout introduced Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin in the successful novel "Fer-de-Lance" (1934), which also featured recurring supporting characters. He focused increasingly on detective fiction, abandoning other genres by 1938. In 1937, he introduced female detective Theodolinda "Dol" Bonner, who later became part of the Nero Wolfe series. He also created detectives Tecumseh Fox and Alphabet Hicks but soon lost interest in them.
From 1940 to 1966, Stout published one Nero Wolfe novel annually, rarely producing other works as the series was his most profitable. His output declined from 1968 to 1975, with only four new novels published. His last Nero Wolfe novel, "A Family Affair" (1975), involved Wolfe uncovering the illicit activities of a close associate.
Stout passed away in October 1975 at age 88. His work remains popular and influential among writers. In 2000, he was nominated for Bouchercon XXXI’s writer of the century award, finishing as a runner-up alongside Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Dorothy L. Sayers, with Agatha Christie winning. He was posthumously inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame in 2014.
