Black Orchids Explained
| Black Orchids |
| Author: | Rex Stout |
| Cover Artist: | Alan Harmon |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | Nero Wolfe |
| Genre: | Detective fiction |
| Publisher: | Farrar & Rinehart |
| Release Date: | May 21, 1942 |
| Media Type: | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages: | 272 pp. (first edition) |
| Oclc: | 4547020 |
| Preceded By: | Where There's a Will |
| Followed By: | Not Quite Dead Enough |
Black Orchids is a Nero Wolfe double mystery by Rex Stout published in 1942 by Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. Stout's first short story collection, the volume is composed of two novellas that had appeared in abridged form in The American Magazine:
Reviews and commentary
- Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime — In the first, Wolfe and Archie are in fine form, and murder at a flower show provides a suitable background for Wolfe's talents and predatory instincts. Archie himself innocently pulls the trigger. The second story is less satisfactory, involving as it does a highly debatable move by the murderer to disarm suspicion. Besides, too many animals.[1]
- Time, "Murder in May" (June 1, 1942) — Nero Wolfe and his ebullient amanuensis Archie Goodwin are here at top form in two "novellas" — "Black Orchids" and "Cordially Invited to Meet Death." The first concerns a cleverly contrived murder at New York's annual Flower Show. The second features an adroit bit of poisoning in the fantastic Riverdale ménage — and menagerie — of a successful party-arranger for Manhattan society. First-class entertainment.[2]
Publication history
- 1942, New York: Farrar & Rinehart, May 21, 1942, hardcover[3]
In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I, Otto Penzler describes the first edition of Black Orchids: "Brick brown cloth, front cover and spine printed with black; rear cover blank. Issued in a brick brown and green pictorial dust wrapper … The first edition has the publisher's monogram logo on the copyright page."[4]
In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of Black Orchids had a value of between $3,000 and $5,000. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.[5]
- 1942, Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1942, hardcover
- 1942, New York: Detective Book Club #5, August 1942, hardcover
- 1943, London: Collins Crime Club, July 5, 1943, hardcover
- 1943, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1943, hardcover
- 1945, Cleveland, Ohio: World Publishing Company, a Tower Book, March 1945, hardcover
- 1946, New York: Avon #95, 1946, paperback
- 1956, New York: Avon #714, 1956, paperback
- 1963, New York: Pyramid (Green Door) #R-917, September 1963, paperback
- 1992, New York: Bantam Crimeline May 1992, trade paperback
- 1996, Burlington, Ontario: Durkin Hayes Publishing, DH Audio, "Black Orchids" December 1996, audio cassette (unabridged, read by Saul Rubinek)
- 1998, Burlington, Ontario: Durkin Hayes Publishing, DH Audio August 1998, audio cassette (unabridged, read by David Elias), "Cordially Invited to Meet Death"
- 2009, New York: Bantam Dell Publishing Group (with The Silent Speaker) August 25, 2009, trade paperback
- 2010, New York: Bantam Crimeline June 30, 2010, e-book
Notes and References
- Barzun, Jacques and Taylor, Wendell Hertig. A Catalogue of Crime. New York: Harper & Row. 1971, revised and enlarged edition 1989.
- https://archive.today/20130204092616/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,790553,00.html "Murder in May"
- Townsend, Guy M., Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography (1980, New York: Garland Publishing;), pp. 79–80
- Penzler, Otto, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I (2001, New York: The Mysterious Bookshop, limited edition of 250 copies), pp. 17–18
- 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
