Three Doors to Death
{{Infobox book |
| name = Three Doors to Death
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = Stout-TDTD-1.jpg
| author = Rex Stout
| cover_artist = Bill English
| country = United States
| language = English
| series = Nero Wolfe
| genre = Detective fiction
| publisher = Viking Press
| release_date = April 21, 1950
| media_type = Print (hardcover)
| pages = 244 pp. (first edition)
| oclc = 1650685
| preceded_by = The Second Confession
| followed_by = In the Best Families
}}
Three Doors to Death is a collection of Nero Wolfe mystery novellas by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1950 — itself collected in the omnibus volume Five of a Kind (Viking 1961). The book comprises three stories that first appeared in The American Magazine:
- "Man Alive" (December 1947)
- "Omit Flowers" (November 1948)
- "Door to Death" (June 1949)
Publication history
- 1950, New York: The Viking Press, April 21, 1950, hardcoverTownsend, Guy M., Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography (1980, New York: Garland Publishing; {{ISBN|0-8240-9479-4}}), p. 81
:In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I, Otto Penzler describes the first edition of Three Doors to Death: "Green cloth, front cover and spine printed with black; rear cover blank. Issued in a mainly reddish-orange dust wrapper."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. 25
:In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of Three Doors to Death had a value of between $300 and $500. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.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
- 1950, New York: Viking (Mystery Guild), August 1950, 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).Penzler, Otto, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I, pp. 19–20
- 1950, London: Collins Crime Club, September 18, 1950, hardcover
- 1952, New York: Dell (mapback by Rafael de Soto), 1952, #626, paperback
- 1961, New York: The Viking Press, Five of a Kind: The Third Nero Wolfe Omnibus (with The Rubber Band and In the Best Families), July 10, 1961, hardcover
- 1966, New York: Bantam #F3154, June 1966, paperback
- 1995, New York: Bantam Crimeline {{ISBN|0-553-25127-9}} February 1995, paperback
- 2010, New York: Bantam Crimeline {{ISBN|0-307-75623-8}} June 9, 2010, e-book
References
{{Reflist|2}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|qid=Q123537002|id=tt0290573|title=A Nero Wolfe Mystery — "Door to Death"}}
- [http://www.nerowolfe.org/nwm/nwm_s1_dtd/dtd-home.htm A Nero Wolfe Mystery — "Door to Death"] at The Wolfe Pack, official site of the Nero Wolfe Society
{{Nero Wolfe}}
Category:1950 short story collections