I have read quite a few of the Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout. I always enjoy going into the old brownstone with Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. From reading the blurbs on the books, I gathered that Rex Stout had lived a very interesting life. John McAleer does a wonderful job with Stout's biography. He begins with his ancestry, and gives an account of his family, his first and second marriages, and the births of his daughters. He also follows Stout's early career as a writer, and tells us about Stout's EBS, a thrift banking system he invented in the late 1910's. Stout began to write the Nero Wolfe mysteries in 1934, and wrote 72 Nero Wolfe stories until his death in 1975. The thing I found fascinating was that Mr. McAleer gives us the time when each novel was written, with how many days Stout wrote and days he didn't write. This book is extensive, but I was captivated reading about the life of one of my favorite authors, Rex Stout. This biography is highly recommended.