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Corsage:
A Bouquet of Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe - Ephemera
ABOUT CORSAGE:
Thought you might be interested in the following. A note on Bitter End , Why Nero Wolfe Likes Orchids, and An Informal Interview With Rex Stout published in Corsage: A Bouquet of Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe
As the publisher of Corsage: A Bouquet of Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe, published by James A. Rock & Co., Publishers, May 1977. We thought you might be interested in this story.
Bitter End was originally published in 1940 in the November issue of American Magazine. (A rework of Tecumseh Fox story)
In 1973, we were publishing an arts magazine in Bloomington, Indiana, entitled HUBRIS: A Gazette of the Arts
We were in contact with John J. McAleer, Rex Stout's biographer, through our editor, Michael Bourne. Mr. McAleer mentioned Bitter End as a Nero Wolfe story which had never been published in book form.
We got into contact with Rex Stout and negotiated the rights to publish Bitter End,
along with an
interview with Mr. Stout. We sent Mr. Michael Bourne to Mr. Stouts home in New York to
conduct the interview on July 18, 1973.
After the interview was completed, we suspended publication of HUBRIS. However, we
renegotiated the rights with Mr. Stout to bring out the first book publication of Bitter
End.
We included our interview in a limited edition and also negotiated the rights to include
an article entitled Why Nero Wolfe Likes Orchids , written by Rex Stout under the nom de
plume of Archie Goodwin, which had appeared in the April 19, 1963 issue of Life magazine.
(This, by the way, accompanied an Alfred Eisenstadt "photographic panoply of
orchids.")
In May of 1977 Bitter End, Why Nero Wolfe Likes Orchids and An Informal Interview with Rex Stout were published in a limited edition volume called Corsage: A Bouquet of Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe This was an edition of 1776 copies, 1500 paperbacks, 250 numbered case bound (i.e., hard backs) and 26 lettered case bound books. This limited edition of 276 hard bound and 1500 soft bound books became a collectors item almost immediately. Copies of the hard bound go for upwards of $600.00 apiece.
Corsage has the following special characteristics:
Corsage was the first book publication of Bitter End
Corsage was the first book publication of Why Nero Wolfe Likes Orchids
Corsage was the first, and as far as we know, only limited edition small press 1st publication and 1st edition of a Nero Wolfe/Rex Stout title.
Corsage was the first, and we think only, illustrated 1st edition of a Nero Wolfe/Rex Stout story.
Corsage contained the last, and the most extensive, published interview with Rex Stout, representing a window on his definitive thoughts on life, literature, and his own work.
We believe that this interview is such an important Rex Stout/Nero Wolfe document that we have reissued it as a stand alone piece, available with the actual live recording of the July 18, 1973 interview.
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