"An Interview with Mr. Rex Stout," November 21, 1941

The Author of the Nero Wolfe Detective Stories Discusses His Work and the War

by Robert van Gelder, New York Times, November 21, 1941.

“His beard is not a particularly good beard: it has rather the sparse look of barberry bushes that have been trampled by the house painters. The beard’s purpose, probably, is to ambush one’s attention from the eyes above it, which are not cataloguing eyes and seem to reflect open judgments, but are intent and observing to a rare degree.”