Data Gathered During The Wolfe Pack Expedition to the Rex Stout Archives at Boston College
July 6, 7, 8, & 9, 2011

In 1965 Rex Stout and Viking Press published the controversial book, The Doorbell Rang, in which Wolfe (and Stout and Viking) take on the FBI. A key plot point features an actual book published in 1964, The FBI Nobody Knows by Fred J. Cook. As a result, Rex Stout was put on the FBI's watch list.

The file folder "Miscellaneous Correspondence -- 1965" in the Rex Stout Archives at Boston College was enormously fat compared to other folders -- filled with adverse reactions to Stout's portrayal of the FBI. His and Fred J. Cook's assessment of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI was proved to be justified years later.


From the West Coast Archives of Rebecca Stout, we have a copy of the NY Herald Tribune's article "Rex Stout, Nero Wolfe and The Big Fish" from October 10, 1965.


Below is proposed cover art and jacket copy from Viking artist
Doorbell Rang Jacket Cover proposed blurb

A proposed cover illustration from Rex Stout cover artist at Viking
Doorbell Rang proposed cover art jacket

Following are two of many, many favorable reviews.

P. G. Wodehouse Review
P. G. Wodehouse Review of THE DOORBELL RANG


Russel Crouse Review
Russel Crouse Review of THE DOORBELL RANG