''Curtains for Three'' is a collection of

Nero Wolfe Nero Wolfe is a brilliant, obese and eccentric fictional armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky. He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in ...

mystery

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) fact ...

s by Rex Stout, published by the

Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim and then acquir ...

in 1951 and itself collected in the omnibus volume ''Full House'' (Viking 1955). The book comprises three stories that first appeared in '' The American Magazine'': * "

The Gun with Wings "The Gun with Wings" is a Nero Wolfe mystery novella by Rex Stout, first published in the December 1949 issue of '' The American Magazine''. It first appeared in book form in the short-story collection ''Curtains for Three'', published by the V ...

" (December 1949) * " Bullet for One" (July 1948) * " Disguise for Murder" (September 1950, as "The Twisted Scarf")

Publication history

*1951, New York: The

, February 23, 1951, hardcover :In his limited-edition pamphlet, ''Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I'', Otto Penzler describes the first edition of ''Curtains for Three'': "Gray cloth, front cover printed with red lettering (and decoration on front cover only) and black rules; rear cover blank. Issued in a black, orange and white dust wrapper." :In April 2006, ''Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine'' estimated that the first edition of ''Curtains for Three'' had a value of between $300 and $500. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket. *1951, New York: Viking ( Mystery Guild), 1951, 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).Penzler, Otto, ''Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I'', pp. 19–20 *1951, London: Collins Crime Club, October 22, 1951, hardcover *1955, New York: The Viking Press, ''Full House: A Nero Wolfe Omnibus'' (with '' The League of Frightened Men'' and '' And Be a Villain''), May 15, 1955, hardcover *1966, New York: Bantam #F3063, June 1966, paperback *1995, New York: Bantam January 2, 1995, paperback *1997, Newport Beach, California: Books on Tape, Inc. July 21, 1997, audio cassette (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard) *2010, New York: Bantam May 12, 2010,

e-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Al ...

References

{{Nero Wolfe 1951 short story collections Nero Wolfe short story collections Viking Press books