Three Men Out Explained

Three Men Out
Author:	Rex Stout
Cover Artist:	Bill English
Country:	United States
Language:	English
Series:	Nero Wolfe
Genre:	Detective fiction
Publisher:	Viking Press
Release Date:	March 26, 1954
Media Type:	Print (hardcover)
Pages:	181 pp. (first edition)
Oclc:	5743510
Preceded By:	The Golden Spiders
Followed By:	The Black Mountain

Three Men Out is a collection of Nero Wolfe mystery novellas by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1954. The book comprises three stories that first appeared in The American Magazine:

• "Invitation to Murder" (August 1953, as "Will to Murder")
• "The Zero Clue" (December 1953, as "Scared to Death")
• "This Won't Kill You" (September 1952, as "This Will Kill You")

Publication history

• 1954, New York: The Viking Press, March 26, 1954, 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 Three Men Out: "Red boards, front cover blank. Issued in a red, black and white dust wrapper. … The binding of this title was a textured cardboard designed to resemble cloth; the book club edition has a smoother texture."^[2]

In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of Three Men Out had a value of between $200 and $350. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.^[3]

• 1954, New York: Viking (Mystery Guild), June 1954, 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]
• 1955, London: Collins Crime Club, January 17, 1955, hardcover
• 1955, Toronto: Macmillan, 1955, hardcover
• 1955, New York: Bantam #1388, November 1955, paperback
• 1980, New York: Bantam Crimeline August 1980, seventh printing, paperback
• 1991, New York: Bantam Crimeline June 1, 1991, paperback
• 1994, New York: Bantam Crimeline May 1994, paperback, Rex Stout Library edition with introduction by Linda Ellerbee
• 1997, Newport Beach, California: Books on Tape, Inc. July 21, 1997, audio cassette (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)
• 2011, New York: Bantam Crimeline August 17, 2011, e-book

Notes and References

1. Townsend, Guy M., Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography. New York: Garland Publishing,, 1980. John McAleer, Judson Sapp and Arriean Schemer are associate editors of this definitive publication history.
2. 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. 30
3. Smiley, Robin H., "Rex Stout: A Checklist of Primary First Editions." Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine (Volume 16, Number 4), April 2006, p. 34
4. Penzler, Otto, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I, pp. 19–20