The League of Frightened Men
Encyclopedia
The League of Frightened Men is the second Nero Wolfe
detective novel by Rex Stout
. The story was serialized in six issues of The Saturday Evening Post (June 15–July 20, 1935) under the title The Frightened Men. The novel was published in 1935 by Farrar & Rinehart
, Inc. The League of Frightened Men is a Haycraft Queen Cornerstone, one of the most influential works of mystery fiction listed by crime fiction historian Howard Haycraft and Ellery Queen
.
in his popular novel, and Archie is telling Wolfe the scurrilous details as found in the newspaper. Wolfe and Archie have an argument about obscenity law, and its upshot is that Wolfe tells Archie to have the book sent over in the morning.
Wolfe reads the book, then tells Archie that Andrew Hibbard, a potential client, had visited while Archie was away on another case, and that Hibbard had asked Wolfe to arrange to protect him from a man whose name he would not disclose. However, Hibbard did include other particulars,
At the time, Wolfe sent Hibbard away with two recommendations
Now, after reading the Chapin cited in the court case, Wolfe has found the curious phrase "embark on a ship of vengeance" twice in that novel, and from that and other considerations forms the surmise that Paul Chapin was the man Andrew Hibbard feared but would not name.
Wolfe considers his surmise to have been validated by confirmation that Chapin had been crippled in a hazing accident at a Harvard
dorm many years before, and also by knowledge that Chapin has a new successful play on Broadway.
Hibbard has been missing for a week or two -- but Wolfe locates some the other members of the "League of Atonement" through Hibbard's niece -- and as already told by Hibbard in the first attempt to engage Wolfe, some of the League have begun dying, though from the actions of Paul Chapin, other menaces, or simply the ordinary course of life is not yet known.
Therefore surviving members of the League enter into an agreement with Wolfe that he should provide the League removal of threats and apprehensions from the following sources
The effectiveness of Wolfe's work is to be decided by a majority vote of the League members.
(1898–1967), the internationally famous Belgian painter, are named after titles of books by Rex Stout," wrote the artist's attorney and friend Harry Torczyner. "He read Hegel, Heidegger and Sartre, as well as Dashiell Hammett
, Rex Stout and Georges Simenon
," the Times Higher Education Supplement wrote of Magritte. "Some of his best titles were 'found' in this way." Magritte's 1942 painting, Les compagnons de la peur ("The Companions of Fear"), bears the title given to The League of Frightened Men when it was published in France by Gallimard
(1939). It is one of Magritte's series of "leaf-bird" paintings. Created during the Nazi occupation of Brussels, it depicts a stormy, mountainous landscape in which a cluster of plants has metamorphosed into a group of vigilant owls.
. Lionel Stander
reprised his Meet Nero Wolfe
role as Archie Goodwin, and Walter Connolly
starred as Nero Wolfe.
Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe is a fictional detective, created in 1934 by the American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe's confidential assistant Archie Goodwin narrates the cases of the detective genius. Stout wrote 33 novels and 39 short stories from 1934 to 1974, with most of them set in New York City. Wolfe's...
detective novel by Rex Stout
Rex Stout
Rex Todhunter Stout was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. Stout is best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe, described by reviewer Will Cuppy as "that Falstaff of detectives." Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin recorded the cases of the...
. The story was serialized in six issues of The Saturday Evening Post (June 15–July 20, 1935) under the title The Frightened Men. The novel was published in 1935 by Farrar & Rinehart
Farrar & Rinehart
Farrar & Rinehart was a United States book publishing company founded in New York. Farrar & Rinehart enjoyed success with both nonfiction and novels, notably, the landmark Rivers of America Series and the first ten books in the Nero Wolfe corpus of Rex Stout...
, Inc. The League of Frightened Men is a Haycraft Queen Cornerstone, one of the most influential works of mystery fiction listed by crime fiction historian Howard Haycraft and Ellery Queen
Ellery Queen
Ellery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay and Manford Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee , to write, edit, and anthologize detective fiction.The fictional Ellery Queen created by...
.
Plot introduction
An author, Paul Chapin, is on trial for alleged obscenityObscenity
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
in his popular novel, and Archie is telling Wolfe the scurrilous details as found in the newspaper. Wolfe and Archie have an argument about obscenity law, and its upshot is that Wolfe tells Archie to have the book sent over in the morning.
Wolfe reads the book, then tells Archie that Andrew Hibbard, a potential client, had visited while Archie was away on another case, and that Hibbard had asked Wolfe to arrange to protect him from a man whose name he would not disclose. However, Hibbard did include other particulars,
- many years earlier, a "boyish prank" upon his friend (now nemesis) had had a lasting and tragic outcome
- in Hibbard's opinion the man was a psychopath
- following the deaths of two their mutual friends at gatherings (reunions), they had received lengthy typewritten unsigned masterfully word poems/threats each saying, among other things that "he had embarked on a ship of vengeance"
- the man had had recent commercial success
At the time, Wolfe sent Hibbard away with two recommendations
- Get some life insurance
- Find another agency specializing in personal protection
Now, after reading the Chapin cited in the court case, Wolfe has found the curious phrase "embark on a ship of vengeance" twice in that novel, and from that and other considerations forms the surmise that Paul Chapin was the man Andrew Hibbard feared but would not name.
Wolfe considers his surmise to have been validated by confirmation that Chapin had been crippled in a hazing accident at a Harvard
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
dorm many years before, and also by knowledge that Chapin has a new successful play on Broadway.
Hibbard has been missing for a week or two -- but Wolfe locates some the other members of the "League of Atonement" through Hibbard's niece -- and as already told by Hibbard in the first attempt to engage Wolfe, some of the League have begun dying, though from the actions of Paul Chapin, other menaces, or simply the ordinary course of life is not yet known.
Therefore surviving members of the League enter into an agreement with Wolfe that he should provide the League removal of threats and apprehensions from the following sources
- Paul Chapin
- Person, possibly Chapin, who has sent typewritten poetic taunts/threats members of the League have recently received (and caused the League of Atonement set up after the hazing accident to be recently dubbed The League of Frightened Men)
- Person or persons responsible for the recent deaths of two of their number (and possibly Hibbard as well, as noted earlier)
The effectiveness of Wolfe's work is to be decided by a majority vote of the League members.
The unfamiliar word
In most Nero Wolfe novels and novellas, there is at least one unfamiliar word, usually spoken by Wolfe.- Viva voce, chapter 2. Wolfe refers Archie to a conversation in the office that was transcribed by a stenographer hired while Archie was away:
- I nodded, glancing over the typewritten pages. "Andrew Hibbard. Instructor in psychology at Columbia. It was on October twentieth, a Saturday, that’s two weeks ago today."
- "Suppose you read it."
- "Viva voce?"
- "Archie." Wolfe looked at me. "Where did you pick that up, where did you learn to pronounce it, and what do you think it means?"
- "Do you want me to read this stuff out loud, sir?"
- "It doesn't mean out loud. Confound you." Wolfe emptied his glass, leaned back in his chair, got his fingers to meet in front of his belly, and laced them. "Proceed."
- Juridical, chapter 21. Wolfe urges objectivity from the assembled League members:
- "You cannot be at the same time juridical and partisan, at least not with any pretense at competence."
Reviews and commentary
- Jacques BarzunJacques BarzunJacques Martin Barzun is a French-born American historian of ideas and culture. He has written on a wide range of topics, but is perhaps best known as a philosopher of education, his Teacher in America being a strong influence on post-WWII training of schoolteachers in the United...
and Wendell Hertig Taylor, A Catalogue of CrimeA Catalogue of CrimeA Catalogue of Crime, by Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor, is a critique of crime fiction first published in 1971. A revised edition was published in 1989 by Barzun after the death of Taylor in 1985. The book was awarded a Special Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America in...
— Archie gets some rough handling and even cries in this longish and complicated story of threatened and actual violence embracing two and a half dozen men of various occupations and characters, who in the past have injured a youth whose revenge they now fear. - Clifton FadimanClifton FadimanClifton P. "Kip" Fadiman was an American intellectual, author, editor, radio and television personality.-Literary career:...
, The New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
— The second book about Nero Wolfe, newest of eccentric detectives, and good enough to prove that his success isn't just a fluke. An excellent story about thirty men scared to death by a cripple, told out of the side of the mouth. - Terry TeachoutTerry TeachoutTerry Teachout is a critic, biographer and blogger. He is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal, the chief culture critic of Commentary, and the author of "Sightings," a column about the arts in America that appears biweekly in the Friday Wall Street Journal...
, About Last Night, "Forty years with Nero Wolfe" (January 12, 2009) — Rex Stout's witty, fast-moving prose hasn't dated a day, while Wolfe himself is one of the enduringly great eccentrics of popular fiction. I've spent the past four decades reading and re-reading Stout's novels for pleasure, and they have yet to lose their savor ... It is to revel in such writing that I return time and again to Stout's books, and in particular to The League of Frightened Men, Some Buried CaesarSome Buried CaesarSome Buried Caesar is the sixth Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout. The story first appeared in abridged form in The American Magazine , under the title "The Red Bull." It was first published in book form by Farrar & Rinehart in 1939...
, The Silent SpeakerThe Silent SpeakerThe Silent Speaker is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, first published by the Viking Press in 1946. It was published just after World War II, and key plot elements reflect the lingering effects of the war: housing shortages and restrictions on consumer goods, including government...
, Too Many WomenToo Many WomenToo Many Women is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, published in 1947 by the Viking Press. The novel was also collected in the omnibus volume All Aces .-Plot introduction:...
, Murder by the BookMurder by the BookMurder by the Book is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout published in 1951 by the Viking Press, and collected in the omnibus volume Royal Flush .-Plot summary:...
, Before MidnightBefore MidnightBefore Midnight is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout published in 1955 by the Viking Press. The story was also collected in the omnibus volume Three Trumps .-Plot introduction:...
, Plot It YourselfPlot It YourselfPlot It Yourself is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1959, and also collected in the omnibus volume Kings Full of Aces .-Plot introduction:...
, Too Many ClientsToo Many ClientsToo Many Clients is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1960, and collected in the omnibus volume Three Aces .-Plot introduction:...
, The Doorbell RangThe Doorbell RangThe Doorbell Rang is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, first published by the Viking Press in 1965.-Plot introduction:Nero Wolfe is hired to force the FBI to stop wiretapping, tailing and otherwise harassing a woman who gave away 10,000 copies of a book that is critical of the Bureau and...
, and Death of a DoxyDeath of a DoxyDeath of a Doxy is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, first published by Viking Press in 1966.-Plot introduction:Orrie Cather, one of Wolfe's operatives, has been secretly seeing a wealthy man's kept mistress at her secret lovenest...
, which are for me the best of all the full-length Wolfe novels. - The prominent American man of letters Edmund WilsonEdmund WilsonEdmund Wilson was an American writer and literary and social critic and noted man of letters.-Early life:Wilson was born in Red Bank, New Jersey. His father, Edmund Wilson, Sr., was a lawyer and served as New Jersey Attorney General. Wilson attended The Hill School, a college preparatory...
wrote in a review in The New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
that the book "makes use of a clever psychological idea."
Popular culture
"A number of the paintings of René MagritteRené Magritte
René François Ghislain Magritte[p] was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images...
(1898–1967), the internationally famous Belgian painter, are named after titles of books by Rex Stout," wrote the artist's attorney and friend Harry Torczyner. "He read Hegel, Heidegger and Sartre, as well as Dashiell Hammett
Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade , Nick and Nora Charles , and the Continental Op .In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on...
, Rex Stout and Georges Simenon
Georges Simenon
Georges Joseph Christian Simenon was a Belgian writer. A prolific author who published nearly 200 novels and numerous short works, Simenon is best known for the creation of the fictional detective Maigret.-Early life and education:...
," the Times Higher Education Supplement wrote of Magritte. "Some of his best titles were 'found' in this way." Magritte's 1942 painting, Les compagnons de la peur ("The Companions of Fear"), bears the title given to The League of Frightened Men when it was published in France by Gallimard
Éditions Gallimard
Éditions Gallimard is one of the leading French publishers of books. The Guardian has described it as having "the best backlist in the world". In 2003 it and its subsidiaries published 1418 titles....
(1939). It is one of Magritte's series of "leaf-bird" paintings. Created during the Nazi occupation of Brussels, it depicts a stormy, mountainous landscape in which a cluster of plants has metamorphosed into a group of vigilant owls.
The League of Frightened Men
Columbia Pictures adapted the novel for its 1937 film The League of Frightened MenThe League of Frightened Men (1937 film)
The League of Frightened Men is a 1937 mystery film based on the second Nero Wolfe novel by Rex Stout. Directed by Alfred E. Green, the Columbia Pictures film stars Walter Connolly as Nero Wolfe, a role played by Edward Arnold in the previous year's Meet Nero Wolfe...
. Lionel Stander
Lionel Stander
Lionel Jay Stander was an American actor in films, radio, theater and television.-Early life and career:Lionel Stander was born in The Bronx, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrants, the first of three children...
reprised his Meet Nero Wolfe
Meet Nero Wolfe
Meet Nero Wolfe is a 1936 mystery film based on the 1934 novel Fer-de-Lance, written by Rex Stout. Set in New York, the story introduced the detective genius Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin...
role as Archie Goodwin, and Walter Connolly
Walter Connolly
Walter Connolly was an American character actor who appeared in almost fifty films between 1914 and 1939.Connolly was a successful stage actor who appeared in twenty-two Broadway productions between 1916 and 1935, notably revivals of Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author and Chekhov's...
starred as Nero Wolfe.
Publication history
- 1935, The Saturday Evening PostThe Saturday Evening PostThe Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
, June 15–July 20, 1935, as The Frightened Men - 1935, New York: Farrar & RinehartFarrar & RinehartFarrar & Rinehart was a United States book publishing company founded in New York. Farrar & Rinehart enjoyed success with both nonfiction and novels, notably, the landmark Rivers of America Series and the first ten books in the Nero Wolfe corpus of Rex Stout...
, August 14, 1935, hardcover
- In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I, Otto PenzlerOtto PenzlerOtto Penzler is an editor of mystery fiction in the United States, and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, where he lives.-Biography:...
describes the first editionEdition (book)The bibliographical definition of an edition includes all copies of a book printed “from substantially the same setting of type,” including all minor typographical variants.- First edition :...
of The League of Frightened Men: "Black cloth, gold lettering on front cover and spine; rear cover blank. Issued in a mainly black, white and gray pictorial dust wrapper … The first edition has the publisher's monogram logo on the copyright page. The second printing, in September 1935, is identical to the first except that the logo was dropped." - In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of The League of Frightened Men had a value of "$15,000 and up."
- 1935, Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1935, hardcover
- 1935, London: Cassell, 1935, hardcover
- 1937, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1937, hardcover
- 1940, New York: Triangle, January 1940, hardcover
- 1942, New York: Avon, 1942, paperback
- 1944, Cleveland, Ohio: World Publishing Company, The Nero Wolfe Omnibus (with The Red BoxThe Red BoxThe Red Box is the fourth Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout. Prior to its first publication in 1937 by Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., the novel was serialized in five issues of The American Magazine...
), January 1944, hardcover - New York: Lawrence E. SpivakLawrence E. SpivakLawrence Edmund Spivak was an American publisher and journalist who was best known as the co-founder, producer and host of the prestigious public affairs program Meet the Press...
, Jonathan Press Mystery #J-33, not dated, abridged, paperback - New York: Lawrence E. SpivakLawrence E. SpivakLawrence Edmund Spivak was an American publisher and journalist who was best known as the co-founder, producer and host of the prestigious public affairs program Meet the Press...
, Mercury Mystery #48, not dated, abridged, paperback - 1955, New York: Viking Press, Full House: A Nero Wolfe Omnibus (with And Be a VillainAnd Be a VillainAnd Be a Villain is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, first published by the Viking Press in 1948...
and Curtains for ThreeCurtains for ThreeCurtains for Three is a collection of Nero Wolfe mystery novellas by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1951 and itself collected in the omnibus volume Full House...
), May 15, 1955, hardcover - 1961, London: Penguin, 1961, paperback
- 1963, New York: Pyramid (Green Door), October 1963, paperback
- 1979, New York: Jove, June 1979, paperback
- 1995, New York: Bantam Books ISBN 0-553-76298-2 January 1995, paperback
- 1996, Burlington, Ontario: Durkin Hayes Publishing, DH Audio ISBN 0-88646-418-8 September 1996, audio cassette (read by Saul RubinekSaul RubinekSaul Rubinek is a Canadian actor, director, producer and playwright, known for his work in TV, film and the stage.-Early life:...
) - 2004, Auburn, California: The Audio Partners Publishing Corp., Mystery Masters ISBN 1-57270-404-7 July 2004, audio CD (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)
- 2008, New York: Bantam Dell Publishing Group (with Fer-de-Lance) ISBN 0-553-38545-3 June 2008, paperback
- 2010, New York: Bantam ISBN 978-0-307-75602-2 April 28, 2010, e-bookE-bookAn electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital...