If I want to sit down and read, my favorite author of all time is Rex Stout, and my favorite characters are the reclusive gourmand and reluctant detective Nero Wolfe and his live-in goad Archie Goodwin. I'm not alone. When Oliver Wendell Holmes read the first Wolfe novel he noted on the last page, "This fellow is the best of them all." William Faulkner quoted Wolfe in his Nobel acceptance. Join Steinbeck wrote a poem about Wolfe and Archie. Ian Fleming wanted to collaborate on a novel featuring M, James Bond, Wolfe, and Archie - Stout declined and commented that, "Bond would have gotten all the girls." If you haven't read any of the Wolfe mysteries, I hesitantly recommend them; whenever I start I tend to read all of them we have, which we think is all of them that were written. A year after Stout was born another famous sleuth came to life - Sherlock Holmes.
Today marks the start of the Second (and least successful) Crusade, the only hangings in US Navy history for mutiny, the beginning of national gasoline rationing in World War II (various states had been rationing or restricting individual gas purchases since May), and the quiet protest of Rosa Parks that may be the true beginning of the civil rights movement in the US.
1145 - After the fall of Edessa, Pope Eugene III (then in exile in France) sent a papal bull to the French King, Louis VII, proclaiming the Second Crusade. Led by Louis and Emperor Conrad III, the crusade lasted from 1147-49, but failed to accomplish its goal. Louis reached Jerusalem as a pilgrim after his army had been defeated and dispersed.
1842 - Midshipman Philip Spencer, Boatswain Samuel Cromwell and Seaman Elisha Small were hanged from the yardarm of the brig-of-war USS Somers, charged with mutiny. Spencer, son of the Secretary of War, had made a comment about commandeering the ship to become a pirate, it is doubtful that any actual mutiny was planned. Lieutenant Guert Gansevoort, a cousin of Herman Melville, was aboard - the kangaroo court and the hangings are probably the basis for Melville's "Billy Budd."
1887 - A Study in Scarlet, the first Arthur Conan Doyle novel featuring Sherlock Holmes, was published at London.
1942 - Gasoline rationing went into effect nationwide in the US, ending on 15 August 1945, and the speed limit was lowered to 35 MPH. Gasoline was plentiful, but Japanese forces had cut off access to Asian latex, so gasoline was rationed to cut down on the civilian use of rubber for tires.
1955 - Rosa Parks, a black seamstress of Montgomery, Alabama, is arrested for refusing to give up her seat near the front of a bus for a white man. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr organized a boycott of the bus company, a year later segregation on public transportation was ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court.
Restoration of Independence, Portugal - Celebrates the 1640 secession of Portugal from Spain and the coronation of King Joao IV after 60 years. Portugal, recently the most powerful and prosperous nation in Europe, was weakened by the untimely death in battle of King Sebastian and the need of most noble families to pay huge cash ransoms for the return of their sons from the Moors, and Philip II of Spain annexed the country in 1580.
1886 - Rex Todhunter Stout, US writer - Bort at Noblesville, Indiana, sixth of nine children of John and Lucetta Todhunter Stout. The Quaker family moved to Warkarusa, Kansas a year later, Rex was taught to read at home (read the Bible twice when he was three), attended public school and was widely known as a prodigy in arithmetic at age 10, state spelling champion at 13. Joined the US Navy at 18, served two years as warrant officer on Theodore Roosevelt's yacht. Had thirty jobs in next four years, often as a bookkeeper but also as cigar salesman, tour guide, and bookstore clerk. Started writing in 1912, grinding it out for the pulps for four years. Started a school banking plan in 1916, traveling the country preaching thrift to schoolchildren, made enough to retire in 1927 and pursue writing full time, living in Paris and visiting the rest of Europe. Sold a number of stories and wrote three novels before writing Fer-de-Lance, the first novel featuring Nero Wolfe, in 1934. Built "High Meadow" near Brewster, New York in 1930 - used only untrained help to make sure it was done his way, the house was modeled on the palace of the Bey of Tunis. Chaired the War Writers' Board, wrote propaganda, emceed the radio program "Speaking of Libery during World War II. After the war opposed nuclear weapons, supported world federalism, and simply ignored a subpoena from the House Unamerican Activities Committee. Was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 1959. Stout had written 72 Nero Wolfe mysteries, 46 of novel length, at the time of his death at Danbury, Connecticut on 27 October 1975.
I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped
in a mystery inside an enigma.
- Winston Churchill
I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery
than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it.
- Harry Emerson Fosdick
Uncertainty and mystery are energies of life. Don't let them scare you
unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity.
- R. I. Fitzhenry
I, for one, get rather annoyed when I settle into a nice bubble bath
with some Belgian chocolate and a mystery at my side only to discover
that all of the characters in the latter are still alive at the end.
- Miriam Nadel
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Copyright 2000 G. Armour Van Horn, all rights reserved. This document may be distributed freely. Please forward the complete message including this copyright notice.