Curtains for Three
Author | Rex Stout |
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Cover artist | Bill English |
Language | English |
Series | Nero Wolfe |
Genre | Detective fiction |
Publisher | Viking Press |
Publication date | February 23, 1951 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (hardcover) |
Pages | 247 pp. (first edition) |
OCLC | 3451596 |
Preceded by | In the Best Families |
Followed by | Murder by the Book |
Curtains for Three is a collection of Nero Wolfe mystery novellas by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1951 and itself collected in the omnibus volume Full House (Viking 1955). The book comprises three stories that first appeared in The American Magazine:
- "The Gun with Wings" (December 1949)
- "Bullet for One" (July 1948)
- "Disguise for Murder" (September 1950, as "The Twisted Scarf")
Publication history
- 1951, New York: The Viking Press, February 23, 1951, hardcover[1]
- In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I, Otto Penzler describes the first edition of Curtains for Three: "Gray cloth, front cover printed with red lettering (and decoration on front cover only) and black rules; rear cover blank. Issued in a black, orange and white dust wrapper."[2]
- In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of Curtains for Three had a value of between $300 and $500. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.[3]
- 1951, New York: Viking (Mystery Guild), 1951, hardcover
- The far less valuable Viking book club edition may be distinguished from the first edition in three ways:
- The dust jacket has "Book Club Edition" printed on the inside front flap, and the price is absent (first editions may be price clipped if they were given as gifts).
- Book club editions are sometimes thinner and always taller (usually a quarter of an inch) than first editions.
- Book club editions are bound in cardboard, and first editions are bound in cloth (or have at least a cloth spine).[4]
- 1951, London: Collins Crime Club, October 22, 1951, hardcover
- 1955, New York: The Viking Press, Full House: A Nero Wolfe Omnibus (with The League of Frightened Men and And Be a Villain), May 15, 1955, hardcover
- 1966, New York: Bantam #F3063, June 1966, paperback
- 1995, New York: Bantam ISBN 0-553-76294-X January 2, 1995, paperback
- 1997, Newport Beach, California: Books on Tape, Inc. ISBN 0-7366-3747-8 July 21, 1997, audio cassette (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)
- 2010, New York: Bantam ISBN 978-0-307-75582-7 May 12, 2010, e-book
References
- ^ Townsend, Guy M., Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography (1980, New York: Garland Publishing; ISBN 0-8240-9479-4), p. 82
- ^ Penzler, Otto, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I (2001, New York: The Mysterious Bookshop, limited edition of 250 copies), p. 26
- ^ Smiley, Robin H., "Rex Stout: A Checklist of Primary First Editions." Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine (Volume 16, Number 4), April 2006, p. 33
- ^ Penzler, Otto, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I, pp. 19–20
- v
- t
- e
- Nero Wolfe
- Archie Goodwin
- Nero Wolfe supporting characters
- Fer-de-Lance (1934)
- The League of Frightened Men (1935)
- The Rubber Band (1936)
- The Red Box (1937)
- Too Many Cooks (1938)
- Some Buried Caesar (1939)
- Over My Dead Body (1940)
- Where There's a Will (1940)
- The Silent Speaker (1946)
- Too Many Women (1947)
- And Be a Villain (1948)
- The Second Confession (1949)
- In the Best Families (1950)
- Murder by the Book (1951)
- Prisoner's Base (1952)
- The Golden Spiders (1953)
- The Black Mountain (1954)
- Before Midnight (1955)
- Might as Well Be Dead (1956)
- If Death Ever Slept (1957)
- Champagne for One (1958)
- Plot It Yourself (1959)
- Too Many Clients (1960)
- The Final Deduction (1961)
- Gambit (1962)
- The Mother Hunt (1963)
- A Right to Die (1964)
- The Doorbell Rang (1965)
- Death of a Doxy (1966)
- The Father Hunt (1968)
- Death of a Dude (1969)
- Please Pass the Guilt (1973)
- A Family Affair (1975)
short stories
- "Bitter End" (1940)
- "Black Orchids" (1941)
- "Cordially Invited to Meet Death" (1942)
- "Not Quite Dead Enough" (1942)
- "Booby Trap" (1944)
- "Help Wanted, Male" (1945)
- "Instead of Evidence" (1946)
- "Before I Die" (1947)
- "Man Alive" (1947)
- "Bullet for One" (1948)
- "Omit Flowers" (1948)
- "Door to Death" (1949)
- "The Gun with Wings" (1949)
- "Disguise for Murder" (1950)
- "The Cop-Killer" (1951)
- "The Squirt and the Monkey" (1951)
- "Home to Roost" (1952)
- "This Won't Kill You" (1952)
- "Invitation to Murder" (1953)
- "The Zero Clue" (1953)
- "When a Man Murders" (1954)
- "Die Like a Dog" (1954)
- "The Next Witness" (1955)
- "Immune to Murder" (1955)
- "A Window for Death" (1956)
- "Too Many Detectives" (1956)
- "Christmas Party" (1957)
- "Easter Parade" (1957)
- "Fourth of July Picnic" (1957)
- "Murder Is No Joke" (1958), expanded as "Frame-Up for Murder" (1958)
- "Method Three for Murder" (1960)
- "Poison à la Carte" (1960)
- "The Rodeo Murder" (1960)
- "Counterfeit for Murder" (1961)
- "Death of a Demon" (1961)
- "Kill Now—Pay Later" (1961)
- "Eeny Meeny Murder Mo" (1962)
- "Blood Will Tell" (1963)
- "Murder Is Corny" (1964)
- "Assault on a Brownstone" (1985, posthumously published early draft of "Counterfeit for Murder")
Film |
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Radio |
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Television |
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Robert Goldsborough
- Murder in E Minor (1986)
- Death on Deadline (1987)
- Fade to Black (1990)