A Curious Curiosity -- or Wolfe Gets the Girl
The Alternate Ending Phenomena Investigated by Debby Montague
See the images of the changes to the story at Debby's FLICKR site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/39555894@N00/.
Click the image below to read a larger copy.
From the Wikipedia page for BEFORE I DIE:
Although Rex Stout professed that he never revised stories, there are material differences between the first appearance of "Before I Die" in The American Magazine and its publication in book form by Viking two years later. In the magazine version, it is a shortage of stainless steel — not meat — that miffs Nero Wolfe.
Archie sets up the story by reporting that Wolfe wants "to build stainless-steel supports for some new plant benches, and, on account of postwar shortages, couldn't get the steel."
The epilogues of the two versions are also different: In the magazine version, the heroine turns down Archie's invitation to dinner in favor of spending the time with Wolfe and his orchids; in the book version, Archie gets the girl, as usual.
The second paragraph in the magazine version also refers to Charley the cleaning man, but Charley was edited out of the Viking edition and is mentioned in only one book version of a Nero Wolfe story, The Silent Speaker (1946).
[THANK YOU TINA, JUELIE, & DEBBY.]
