What do you think?
Rate this book
Rex Stout: A Biography
With inscription from the author. Foreword by P.G. Wodehouse. Documents the fascinating life of the creator of Nero Wolfe. Illustrated with photographs. xiv, 621 pages. 1977 , thick 8vo., cloth, dust jacket..
621 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1977
9 people are currently reading
129 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 10 reviews
June 2, 2019
4 stars to Rex Stout - 1 to McAleer, rounding down the average because I am, after all, rating the book not the man.
Stout had certainly lived a fascinating and impressively varied life, and while I don't blame McAleer for finding it difficult to tie it all into a coherent story, he's still responsible for making it so boring to read.
This book is such a jumble of random factoids! I suppose the author hated to give up any of his meticulously researched information. He overexplains every subtlety, chews every point until nothing is left, but even so contradicts himself pretty often: when Stout's daughter and a friend plan a road trip, we're told that Stout lends his car, oversees the packing, plans the route - and in the next sentence we're told "he kept his advice to the minimum." Fine.
The author also declined having any opinions on anything he's talking about, the only slender exception being Stout's position on Vietnam. I suppose the "authorization" of this biography is the reason.
The prose is painful, much indulging in laboured puns and eyerolling cliches. Considering Stout's own straightforward, efficient prose style, I'm not inclined to go easy on McAleer here.
So, I don't regret having read this, but if only there was any other biography available I would have chucked it long ago.
Stout had certainly lived a fascinating and impressively varied life, and while I don't blame McAleer for finding it difficult to tie it all into a coherent story, he's still responsible for making it so boring to read.
This book is such a jumble of random factoids! I suppose the author hated to give up any of his meticulously researched information. He overexplains every subtlety, chews every point until nothing is left, but even so contradicts himself pretty often: when Stout's daughter and a friend plan a road trip, we're told that Stout lends his car, oversees the packing, plans the route - and in the next sentence we're told "he kept his advice to the minimum." Fine.
The author also declined having any opinions on anything he's talking about, the only slender exception being Stout's position on Vietnam. I suppose the "authorization" of this biography is the reason.
The prose is painful, much indulging in laboured puns and eyerolling cliches. Considering Stout's own straightforward, efficient prose style, I'm not inclined to go easy on McAleer here.
So, I don't regret having read this, but if only there was any other biography available I would have chucked it long ago.
January 16, 2009
Excellent biography of an excellent writer.
October 20, 2010
I have read the original edition half a dozen times...hope to get this ediiton at some point...one of hte best books about a writer and the writers process i have ever read.
December 22, 2013
A remarkable book about a superb writer and fascinating man.
Read
December 1, 2020McAleer may put sentences on a page, but from my perspective he is simply not a writer. I started this book with great anticipation, having read most of Stout's Nero Wolfe stories.
McAleer starts with fascinating genealogy. Upon arriving in early colonial North America, a female antecedent is among those attacked by natives. Severely wounded and alone for some days she survives. And somehow it is a distinct effort to make it to the end of each sentence.
So disappointing
McAleer starts with fascinating genealogy. Upon arriving in early colonial North America, a female antecedent is among those attacked by natives. Severely wounded and alone for some days she survives. And somehow it is a distinct effort to make it to the end of each sentence.
So disappointing
April 6, 2024
I recieved this as an early birthday gift from a great friend who knows I love the Nero Wolfe books. It ended up being an absolutely fascinating read and one I'd have never picked up on my own.
Biographies are often hard for me to read and of the large scholarly type I have managaed to completely finish just one. This one. Even my copy of Ronald Reagans biography is languishing on a shelf with a piece of paper in it where I left off.
While this is a very scholarly document and therefore slow reading, it manages to engage my fascination as the circumstances and stories of Rex Stouts life were laid out. I found while I knew some things about him very well, there were many others that I had had no clue about.
The very begining is a long history of Stouts forebearers and I found that the most difficult part ot get through. The other hard part was a seriese of question and answers between Stout and the author. The builk of the book takes you through Stouts life in mostly yearly order. There were a number of surprising revelations including things that happened to Stout as a child that appeared later in his books to happen to Archie.
Many of the people who knew Stout personally were quoted as saying that of all the characters Stout wrote, that Archie was the most similar to Stout himself. He appears to have been an incredibily intelligent and passionate man, even to the point of acerbic responses to things he deemed wrong. He was very involved in politics more than I had realized. I have the recordings of him hosting "Speaking on Liberty" recorded during the second world war as a part of my old time radio collection. But he regularly exchanged letters with presidents, captains of industry and of course, numerous other authors and members of the publishing businesses.
Will I read the next biography. Nope, I believe that this one is satifactory.
Biographies are often hard for me to read and of the large scholarly type I have managaed to completely finish just one. This one. Even my copy of Ronald Reagans biography is languishing on a shelf with a piece of paper in it where I left off.
While this is a very scholarly document and therefore slow reading, it manages to engage my fascination as the circumstances and stories of Rex Stouts life were laid out. I found while I knew some things about him very well, there were many others that I had had no clue about.
The very begining is a long history of Stouts forebearers and I found that the most difficult part ot get through. The other hard part was a seriese of question and answers between Stout and the author. The builk of the book takes you through Stouts life in mostly yearly order. There were a number of surprising revelations including things that happened to Stout as a child that appeared later in his books to happen to Archie.
Many of the people who knew Stout personally were quoted as saying that of all the characters Stout wrote, that Archie was the most similar to Stout himself. He appears to have been an incredibily intelligent and passionate man, even to the point of acerbic responses to things he deemed wrong. He was very involved in politics more than I had realized. I have the recordings of him hosting "Speaking on Liberty" recorded during the second world war as a part of my old time radio collection. But he regularly exchanged letters with presidents, captains of industry and of course, numerous other authors and members of the publishing businesses.
Will I read the next biography. Nope, I believe that this one is satifactory.
October 17, 2023
I'm of two minds about this: McAleer's hero-worship is overbearing, and his close access to his subject made me cynical. But Stout's far-reaching intellect and energy are undeniably awe-inspiring. His life before and beyond Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin was broad and adventurous, and his long (the book begins with the biography of an ancestor born in 1642) family history fascinating. Worth reading, especially for fans, but in many places too much of a good thing.
May 30, 2021
Remarkably entertaining account of one of America’s most popular writers, who was forgotten when his books aged not as well as some British mysteries. I love his detective, but also his zest for life and his defense of freedom.
September 30, 2022
A definitive biography of one of America's greatest crime writers, the inventor of Nero Wolfe.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 10 reviews