Death of a Dude
Death of a Dude is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1969.
Plot introduction
Archie Goodwin is part of a house party at Lily Rowan's vacation home in Montana when a murder brings Nero Wolfe from New York to take a hand.
Publication history
- In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #10, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part II, Otto Penzler describes the first edition of Death of a Dude: "Blue boards, dark blue cloth spine; front and rear covers blank; spine printed with green, blue, and white lettering. Issued in a mainly black pictorial dust wrapper."[2]
- In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of Death of a Dude had a value of between $100 and $200. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.[3]
- The far less valuable Viking book club edition may be distinguished from the first edition in three ways:
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- 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]
- 1969, Canadian Magazine (abridged), November 1969
- 1970, London: Collins Crime Club, April 13, 1970, hardcover
- 1970, New York: Bantam #S-5487, August 1970, paperback
- 1972, London: Fontana #2673, 1972, paperback
- 1972, London: Book Club Associates, 1972
- 1995, New York: Bantam Books ISBN 0-553-76295-8 January 2, 1995, paperback
- 2000, Newport Beach, California: Books on Tape, Inc. ISBN 0-7366-5084-9 April 19, 2000, audio cassette (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)
- 2010, New York: Bantam ISBN 978-0-307-75587-2 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. 43. John McAleer, Judson Sapp and Arriean Schemer are associate editors of this definitive publication history.
- ^ Penzler, Otto, Collecting Mystery Fiction #10, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part II (2001, New York: The Mysterious Bookshop, limited edition of 250 copies), p. 23
- ^ Smiley, Robin H., "Rex Stout: A Checklist of Primary First Editions." Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine (Volume 16, Number 4), April 2006, p. 35
- ^ Penzler, Otto, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I, pp. 19–20
External links
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