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Cover Art for Corsage

In May of 1977 James A. Rock & Company, Publishers published the limited edition Rex Stout/Nero Wolfe book, Corsage: A Bouquet of Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe. This limited edition of 276 hard bound and 1500 soft bound books became a collector's item almost immediately. Corsage included an interview with Rex Stout, the first book publication of the Nero Wolfe novella Bitter End, and a reprint of the 1963 Life Magazine article Why Nero Wolfe Loves Orchids.  Copies of the hardback of Corsage are now being sold for over $1000 on the rare book market. (use search www.bookfinder.com or www.addall.com to see copies for sale, even the paperback is going for over $200.00.

THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING RARITIES: 1/14/07 (A Slightly modified version of this went to the DorothyL Mystery Lovers list today)

Back in 1977 when Corsage  we we were both young pubs we received an order for a box of the limited edition Hardbacks from Murder Ink book store in New York City, 14 of them, which we duly shipped off. At about the same time, our then new distributor, South West Book Distributors received a box of 15 paper back and 15 hard back copies of Corsage. Shortly thereafter two things happened, Carol Brener called to say the box had arrived damaged, we sent a replacement, but the books never arrived from Murder Ink. Within weeks we received news from Texas that Southwest Books had folded and our books in their warehouse were being sold for auction. Thus, 29 hardbacks of a limited edition of 276, a bit over 10 percent, were gone.

I never harbored much hope for the Texas copies, but I have always sort of hoped that somewhere in the boxes being carted from location to location, as Murder Ink moved and changed owners were the 14 copies of Corsage, waiting to be found. 

In 1977, the hardback went for under $15, the loss of 14 copies was a bibliographic sadness, but not monetarily significant. It says something about Manhattan rents that even if Murder Ink had found and sold all of them, the $14,000 would not have covered a month's rent.

Michael Bourne, who edited Corsage later moved to New York and is now a disc jockey at WBGO, Jaz Voice of Newark, and became friends with Jane Dentinger who was then at Murder Ink., continuing the connection. We will miss them. 

I am sad that Murder Ink is gone and it makes the trail somewhat colder, but the sleuth in me wishes that someone in New York were on the trail.

Although Corsage is an out-of-print collectible, Rock Publishing has several fine Rex Stout/Nero Wolfe related items available at much less rarified prices.  

This Nero Wolfe page is dedicated to the classic detective mystery series by Rex Stout which chronicles the cases of the world's largest detective, Nero Wolfe, and the exploits of his "eyes, ears, and legs" Archie Goodwin. This page will point you to information about Nero Wolfe publications and ephemera available from us, other Nero Wolfe and Rex Stout sites, and books and ephemera available from other sites.

WE ARE PROUD TO PUBLISH THE  ENHANCED
MILLENNIAL EDITION OF 
the Edgar Award Winning work

To learn more about buying a limited edition cassette taped interview with Rex Stout click here.