Door to Death

Short story by Rex Stout

"Door to Death"

Short story by Rex Stout

Illustrated by Thornton Utz

Country| United States
Language| English
Genre(s)| Detective fiction
Publication
Published in| The American Magazine
Publication type| Periodical
Publication date| June 1949
Series| Nero Wolfe

"Door to Death" is a Nero Wolfe mystery novella by Rex Stout, first published in the June 1949 issue of The American Magazine. It first appeared in book form in the short-story collection Three Doors to Death, published by the Viking Press in 1950.

## Plot summary

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When orchid nurse Theodore Horstmann leaves the brownstone indefinitely to tend to his sick mother, Nero Wolfe goes out -- in the snow and on foot -- into the raging wilds of Westchester to find a replacement. He and Archie find a corpse in the greenhouse, as well.

## Publication history

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Dell Ten-Cent Edition #21, first edition as such ("Door to Death" is the only story in this book), 1951

### "Door to Death"

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* 1949, The American Magazine, June 1949[1]: 62
* 1951, New York: Dell Publishing, Dell Ten Cent Paperback #21 (cover illustration by Robert C. Stanley), 1951, paperback

### Three Doors to Death

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* 1950, New York: The Viking Press, April 21, 1950, hardcover[1]: 81

Contents include "Man Alive", "Omit Flowers" and "Door to Death".
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."[2]: 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.[3]

* 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).[2]: 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

## Adaptations

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Spadina Historic House and Gardens, the Pitcairn estate in "Door to Death" (A Nero Wolfe Mystery)

Greenhouse and cottage at Spadina House

### A Nero Wolfe Mystery (A&E Network)

[edit]

"Door to Death" was adapted for the first season of the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002). Directed by Holly Dale from a teleplay by Sharon Elizabeth Doyle, the episode made its debut June 24, 2001, on A&E.

Timothy Hutton is Archie Goodwin; Maury Chaykin is Nero Wolfe. Other members of the cast (in credits order) are Colin Fox (Fritz Brenner), James Tolkan (Mr. Joseph Pitcairn), Marian Seldes (Mrs. Pitcairn), Kari Matchett (Lily Rowan), Nicholas Campbell (Andy Krasicki), Beau Starr (Lieutenant Noonan), Conrad Dunn (Saul Panzer), Ken Kramer (Neil Imbrie), Kristin Booth (Dini Lauer), Christine Brubaker (Sybil Pitcairn), Boyd Banks (Donald Pitcairn), Nancy Beatty (Vera Imbrie) and Francie Swift (Margot Dickey, uncredited).

In addition to original music by Nero Wolfe composer Michael Small, the soundtrack includes music by Angel Villaldo and Tony Clout.[a][5]

In international broadcasts, the episodes "Door to Death" and "Christmas Party" are linked and expanded into a 90-minute widescreen telefilm titled "Wolfe Goes Out".[6][b]

A Nero Wolfe Mystery began to be released on Region 2 DVD in December 2009, marketed in the Netherlands by Just Entertainment.[7] The third collection released in April 2010 made the 90-minute features "Wolfe Goes Out" and "Wolfe Stays In" available on home video for the first time; until then, the linked episodes "Door to Death"/ "Christmas Party" and "Eeny Meeny Murder Mo"/"Disguise for Murder" were available only in the abbreviated form sold in North America by A&E Home Video (ISBN 0-7670-8893-X). The A&E and Just Entertainment DVD releases present the episodes in 4:3 pan and scan rather than their 16:9 aspect ratio for widescreen viewing.

## Notes

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1. ^ Angel Villoldo, "El Choclo," arranged by Colin Frechter; Carlin Production Music CAR 164, Latin American (track 13). Tony Clout, "La Concordia"; Carlin Production Music CAR 164, Latin American (track 10).[4]
2. ^ Program listings for the Sunday, November 7, 2004, broadcast on Sky Movies 2 record the broadcast as widescreen format.

## References

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1. ^ a b Townsend, Guy M.; McAleer, John J.; Sapp, Judson C.; Schemer, Arriean, eds. (1980). Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc. ISBN 0-8240-9479-4.
2. ^ a b Penzler, Otto, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I. New York: The Mysterious Bookshop, 2001. Limited edition of 250 copies.
3. ^ 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
4. ^ "Door to Death, Soundtracks". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
5. ^ "The Music". The Wolfe Pack. Archived from the original on May 24, 2012. Retrieved 2016-12-21.
6. ^ "Wolfe Goes Out: A Nero Wolfe Mystery". Sky Cinema. Retrieved 2016-12-17.
7. ^ "Nero Wolfe". Just Entertainment. Retrieved 2014-10-12.

## External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Door to Death.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Door to Death.

* A Nero Wolfe Mystery — "Door to Death" at IMDb
* A Nero Wolfe Mystery — "Door to Death" at The Wolfe Pack, official site of the Nero Wolfe Society

* v
* t
* e

Nero Wolfe

Creator|

* Rex Stout

Characters|

* Nero Wolfe
* Archie Goodwin
* Nero Wolfe supporting characters

Novels|

* Fer-de-Lance (1934)
* The League of Frightened Men (1935)
* The Rubber Band (1936)
* The Red Box (1937)
* Too Many Cooks (1938)
* Some Buried Caesar (1939)
* Over My Dead Body (1940)
* Where There's a Will (1940)
* The Silent Speaker (1946)
* Too Many Women (1947)
* And Be a Villain (1948)
* The Second Confession (1949)
* In the Best Families (1950)
* Murder by the Book (1951)
* Prisoner's Base (1952)
* The Golden Spiders (1953)
* The Black Mountain (1954)
* Before Midnight (1955)
* Might as Well Be Dead (1956)
* If Death Ever Slept (1957)
* Champagne for One (1958)
* Plot It Yourself (1959)
* Too Many Clients (1960)
* The Final Deduction (1961)
* Gambit (1962)
* The Mother Hunt (1963)
* A Right to Die (1964)
* The Doorbell Rang (1965)
* Death of a Doxy (1966)
* The Father Hunt (1968)
* Death of a Dude (1969)
* Please Pass the Guilt (1973)
* A Family Affair (1975)

Novellas and
short stories|

* "Bitter End" (1940)
* "Black Orchids" (1941)
* "Cordially Invited to Meet Death" (1942)
* "Not Quite Dead Enough" (1942)
* "Booby Trap" (1944)
* "Help Wanted, Male" (1945)
* "Instead of Evidence" (1946)
* "Before I Die" (1947)
* "Man Alive" (1947)
* "Bullet for One" (1948)
* "Omit Flowers" (1948)
* "Door to Death" (1949)
* "The Gun with Wings" (1949)
* "Disguise for Murder" (1950)
* "The Cop-Killer" (1951)
* "The Squirt and the Monkey" (1951)
* "Home to Roost" (1952)
* "This Won't Kill You" (1952)
* "Invitation to Murder" (1953)
* "The Zero Clue" (1953)
* "When a Man Murders" (1954)
* "Die Like a Dog" (1954)
* "The Next Witness" (1955)
* "Immune to Murder" (1955)
* "A Window for Death" (1956)
* "Too Many Detectives" (1956)
* "Christmas Party" (1957)
* "Easter Parade" (1957)
* "Fourth of July Picnic" (1957)
* "Murder Is No Joke" (1958), expanded as "Frame-Up for Murder" (1958)
* "Method Three for Murder" (1960)
* "Poison à la Carte" (1960)
* "The Rodeo Murder" (1960)
* "Counterfeit for Murder" (1961)
* "Death of a Demon" (1961)
* "Kill Now—Pay Later" (1961)
* "Eeny Meeny Murder Mo" (1962)
* "Blood Will Tell" (1963)
* "Murder Is Corny" (1964)
* "Assault on a Brownstone" (1985, posthumously published early draft of "Counterfeit for Murder")

Adaptations|

| Film|

* Meet Nero Wolfe (1936)
* The League of Frightened Men (1937)

|

Radio|

* The Adventures of Nero Wolfe (1943–44)
* The Amazing Nero Wolfe (1945)
* The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe (1950–51)
* Nero Wolfe (1982)

Television|

* Nero Wolfe (1977)
* Nero Wolfe (1981)
* The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2000)
* Nero Wolfe (2001–02)

Novels by
Robert Goldsborough|

* Murder in E Minor (1986)
* Death on Deadline (1987)
* Fade to Black (1990)

Related|

* Black Orchid Novella Award
* Nero Award
* The Wolfe Pack

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