The following discussion was conducted on the Nero Wolfe mailing list in May, 2002. It was conducted under the subject "Introducing Glenn Dixon." The topics discussed don't apply to specific Dixon stories, but rather to the general subjects of pastiches and Wolfe's leaving the brownstone, so I've gathered them on their own page.

Date: Sun, 19 May 2002 06:48:46 -0400

Subject: GD: Introducing Glenn Dixon

Tomorrow we begin discussion of the first Glenn Dixon story, _Welcome to Death_. I asked Mr. Dixon for some biographical information, as background, and he was kind enough to provide the following:

-----

My background as a fan

I have been a Nero Wolfe fan since I was a sophomore in high school, 1969. My brother Paul, a year ahead of me in school, came home one day wearing a T-shirt he had made in his graphics arts class with "Nero Wolfe Fan Club" and a sketch of Wolfe silkscreened on it. He had made exactly two of these shirts, one for him and one for his girlfriend (now wife) Barbara. Paul and Barbara continue as Wolfe fans to today. They are both literature professors at Purdue University in Indiana.

Paul's shirt led me to the school library and subsequently to all the libraries within bicycling distance of my home. I was hooked on Wolfe stories. Each new story I discovered was an exciting event.

After high school I spent two years living in Japan, and forgot about Wolfe and Stout temporarily. When I returned I was busy in personal matters (college, courtship, etc.) and did not do any Wolfe reading until 1975, when Paul informed me that Stout had died after writing one last novel, _A Family Affair_. The news coupled with a reading of Stout's last novel (the darn thing was so final) was deeply troubling to me.

When Goldsborough's novel, _Murder in E Minor_ was published, I was excited. In my naïve mind, I thought it was possible to recreate Stout's world with nary a ripple, and that I would have an unbroken succession of Wolfe stories for many years.

Goldsborough certainly knew his Wolfe (much better than I!), but something seemed to be missing from _Murder in E Minor_. Since I only read the stories for enjoyment I couldn't put my finger on the problem, but to me Goldsborough's first work wasn't as fun to read as Stout's. The subsequent novels Goldsborough wrote seemed more and more, um, hollow. The shell was there: Wolfe and Archie acted, at least superficially, as they should have, but the fun was missing. Goldborough's stories, instead of being a continuation of Stout's world, gave me a deep sense that somehow Stout's world had been compromised. Archie and Wolfe had been robbed of their souls, and their carcasses were left in a sort of limbo. I carried this feeling with me for many years, and really wanted someone to step in and somehow magically fix the problem. I note here that I give Goldsborough credit for effort, and realize now that it is impossible to recreate Stout's Wolfe perfectly.

-----

Gregory Smith

At 06:48 AM 5/19/2002 -0400, Gregory Smith wrote: I asked Mr. Dixon for some biographical information, as background, and he was kind enough to provide the following:

<snips>

The subsequent novels Goldsborough wrote seemed more and

more, um, hollow. The shell was there: Wolfe and Archie acted, at least superficially, as they should have, but the fun was missing. Goldborough's stories, instead of being a continuation of Stout's world, gave me a deep sense that somehow Stout's world had been compromised. Archie and Wolfe had been robbed of their souls, and their carcasses were left in a sort of limbo. I carried this feeling with me for many years, and really wanted someone to step in and somehow magically fix the problem. I note here that I give Goldsborough credit for effort, and realize now that it is impossible to recreate Stout's Wolfe perfectly.

And, I believe Glenn did the impossible. Perhaps not perfection, but damn close. By the time I read 3 pages of WTD I felt warm and cosy in the Brownstone I know so well, and with my favorite people. Most Satisfactory, Glenn! And thank you Greg.

Inspector Cramer aka Dot Moran

I agree completely.

AND, if anyone is of the mind NOT to read these stories for whatever reason, you ought to and owe it to yourself to read at least the first chapter. It is spectacular. But then, maybe you had better not read it because I doubt you would be able to stop.

WD

----- Original Message -----
From: Dorothy Moran
To: beaglewriter@att.net ; Wolfe List
Sent: Sunday, May 19, 2002 5:44 AM
Subject: Re: GD: Introducing Glenn Dixon

And, I believe Glenn did the impossible. Perhaps not perfection, but damn close. By the time I read 3 pages of WTD I felt warm and cosy in the Brownstone I know so well, and with my favorite people. Most Satisfactory, Glenn! And thank you Greg.

Inspector Cramer aka Dot Moran

One or two members of the list consider Goldsborough to be teh "AntiChrist". I pointed out that, while one may have strong feelings on the question of Nero Wolfe stories, calling RG the AntiChrist was a bit severe.

Generally, most list-members don't care for the stories and the stories are, of course, not canonical. They have their points. I rather liked Murder in E minor. I thought Death on Deadline was nice 'cause it feaured Lon Cohen. Generally, though, the quality of the stories declined with every book.

And, why discuss ersatz Stout when you have real Stout?

Of all the pastiches that have been mentioned, Dixon's comes closest to the original. Probably because, while it follows Stout closely, it does not do so slavishly.

At 09:19 PM 5/19/02 -0700, WD wrote:

> I agree completely. AND, if anyone is of the mind NOT to read these
>stories for whatever reason, you ought to and owe it to yourself to read at
>least the first chapter.

I did.

> ... I doubt you would be able to stop.

I did.

The Waterfall Picture ( who just doesn't care for pastiches )

The Continental Op Page
http://nanaimo.ark.com/~wilted

At 9:19 pm -0700 on 19/05/02, "Walt Doherty" wrote :

>I agree completely.
>
>AND, if anyone is of the mind NOT to read these
>stories for whatever reason, you ought to and
>owe it to yourself to read at least the first chapter.
>It is spectacular. But then, maybe you had better
>not read it because I doubt you would be able to stop.

Well, very reluctantly, I'm forced to disagree....

I've now read all the Dixon stories (having just persuaded my partner we really, really needed a new laser printer, I printed out 300+ pages of them!)

In my view the standard of writing started really well, surprisingly close to original Stout; but the quality rapidly dropped. Depressingly, for a Wolfe enthusiast, the final Dixon story is quite terrible.

Essentially, while he adds some new and appropriate touches (eg cell 'phones) this is at the expense of totally losing the Stout characterisation. For example, while we know Wolfe will on special occasions leave the brownstone, Dixon has him charging around New York - and beyond! Additionally, as I mentioned, the third story is, in its basic concept, simply ridiculous.

I'll save details for the on-list discussions, but in summary I was very disappointed. Dixon could clearly produce a pretty good Wolfe story if he wanted; but the more freedom he gave himself, the further he went from the original, and the less effective the result.

a disappointed

- duncan

At 11:48 AM 5/20/2002 +0100, Duncan Langford wrote:

For example, while we know Wolfe will on special occasions leave the brownstone, Dixon has him charging around New

York - and beyond!

Duncan, have you seen this list? Wolfe leaves the brownstone more often than you think.

NW leave the brownstone 35 times
does NOT leave 39 times

Lists detailing NW leaves/does not leave brownstone

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# Title LEAVES - Why or where or both
====================================
2. League of Frightened ---- Men Kidnapped, sort of, by a certain taxi driver
4 .The Red Box ---- To investigate murder at Boyden McNair, Inc
5. Too Many Cooks ....To address chefs on American Cuisine in WV
6 .Some Buried Caesar To attend show upstate to display orchids
8. Where There's a Will ---- To the Hawthorne residence on 67th St in a taxi 10. Black Orchids ---- To view the much coveted black orchids
12. Not Quite Dead Enough ---To exercise with Fritz and 10th precinct to get AG
13. Booby Trap ---To meet with Col Ryder of Military Intelligence
16. The Silent Speaker ---To Centre St police headquarters to report to Ash
23. Door to Death ---To hire Andy Krasicki to replace Theodore temp.
24. The Second Confession ---To the Sperling household upstate
25. Cop Killer ---To his barber shop, get a haircut, close the case
28. In the Best Families ---To GET Zeck
29. Squirt & The Monkey ---Well, technically, down the stoop to talk to Cramer
30 .Murder By The Book ---To have dinner with Marko at Rusterman's
32. This Won't Kill You ---To a baseball game with Pierre Mondor & Archie
33. Prisoner's Base ---Once again to the 10th precinct to get Archie
34. Invitation to Murder --To the Lewent house 2 miles from the Brownstone
39. The Black Mountain ---To hunt down Marko's murderer in Montenegro
40. The Next Witness ---To testify in court (he didn't)
41. Immune to Murder--- To prepare & serve his famous brook trout dish
42 .Before Midnight ---To LBA to search for cyanide with the 'teers
44. Too Many Detectives ---To testify in Albany re wire-tapping
46. The Christmas Party ---To play Santa and spy on Archie
49. 4th of July Picnic ---To make a speech at picnic for URWA for Felix
53. Poison a la Carte--- Attended the "10 for Aristology" doomed dinner
54 Method Three for Murder -Tough one:Technically, yes, to the threshold/stoop
58 .Plot it Yourself ---To meet with the NAAD committee et al
59. The Rodeo Murder--- To dine on blue grouse at Lily's apartment
63. The Final Deduction--- With AG to Doc Vollmer's to stall being questioned
66. The Mother Hunt --- To Hewitt on LI to 'cook' up a scheme
71. The Father Hunt ---Not business: to view & 'talk' orchids with Hewitt
72. Death of a Dude ---To Montana to help Archie solve a murder
74. A Family Affair ---To & From Rusterman's to see Pierre Duco's father
=======================================
List of stories where NW does NOT leave the brownstone
--------------------------------------------
1 Fer-de-Lance
3 The Rubber Band
7 Over My Dead Body
9 Bitter End
11 Cordially Invited to Meet Death
14 Help Wanted, Male
15 Instead of Evidence
17 Before I Die
18 Too Many Women
19 Man Alive
20 Bullet for One
21 And Be a Villian
22 Omit Flowers
26 The Gun With Wings
27 Disguise for Murder
31 Home to Roost
35 The Zero Clue
36 The Golden Spiders
37 When a Man Murders
38 Die Like a Dog
43 A Window for Death
45 Might As Well Be Dead
47 Easter Parade
48 If Death Ever Slept
50 Frame-up For Murder
51 Murder is No Joke
52 Champagne for One
55 Eeny Meeny Murder Mo
56 Assault on a Brownstone
57 Counterfeit for Murder
60 Death of a Demon
61 Too Many Clients
62 Kill Now -- Pay Later
64 Murder is Corny
65 Gambit
67 Blood Will Tell
68 A Right to Die
70 Death of a Doxy
73 Please Pass the Guilt

Inspector Cramer aka Dot Moran

Dorothy Moran wrote:

Duncan, have you seen this list? Wolfe leaves the brownstone more often than you think.

NW leave the brownstone 35 times does NOT leave 39 times

Dot ... this is fantastic!! Did you make this list?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some days you're the dog,
some days you're the hydrant.

Pete Levin
pete@petelevin.com
http://www.petelevin.com/
http://www.takemysiteplease.com/

Walt Doherty wrote: > was nice 'cause it feaured Lon Cohen. Generally, though, thequality
> of the stories declined with every book.

... which makes Stout's lifetime output even more impressive. He wrote a few dogs, but to have maintained that level of writing over so many stories is pretty amazing.

An artist's viewpoint on Goldsborough: The creative process is very much affected by what's going on around you. The ideal situation is for the artist to be in a situation where all of his creative time and energy are given over to art. It's possible to simultaneously expend creative juices in other enterprises, but almost always the art suffers. Some artists transcend this condition: (Bach is a perfect example) Most don't. Goldsborough's real career is in the Advertising business. If we we wanted to identify an Anti-Christ for Art, the advertising industry would probably get the most votes. At best, it's a major distraction.

I don't doubt that Goldsborough is a competent writer. He ain't Rex Stout, but we already knew that. But any current successful novelist on Stout's level has their own thing going, and wouldn't have time or creative energy to expend on novels that are based on someone else's work - especially knowing that they'd certainly get lots of flak from critics and Stout fans, regardless of their quality. It's a bad career move no matter how you look at it. Goldsborough had nothing to lose. He created some interesting concepts, and had a few bright spots, but I'd much prefer that Wolfe had packed it in with Rex Stout.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some days you're the dog,
some days you're the hydrant.

Pete Levin
pete@petelevin.com
http://www.petelevin.com/
http://www.takemysiteplease.com/

Good points from both Duncan and Dorothy! I'm sure that when we get to _Not With a Whimper_, it'll be a spirited discussion. For now, I'd like to focus our bandwidth on WTD -- Duncan, do you think you can "pretend" you haven't read NWAW yet? <big g>

And if there are those of you who'd prefer not to take part, just watch for the GD or WTD in the subject lines, and hit delete.

Thanks,
Gregory Smith

At 08:31 AM 5/20/02 -0400, Cramer wrote:

> Duncan, have you seen this
>list? Wolfe leaves the brownstone more often
>than you think.
>

If you cut out those times that were not business, it's only about sixteen times in approximately 40 years. Not that often.

The Waterfall Picture

The Continental Op Page
http://nanaimo.ark.com/~wilted

At 08:31 AM 5/20/02 -0400, Cramer wrote:

> Duncan, have you seen this
>list? Wolfe leaves the brownstone more often
>than you think.
>
At 09:00 AM 5/20/2002 -0700, Collins wrote:
If you cut out those times that were not business, it's only about
sixteen times in approximately 40 years. Not that often.

True, but some of the times he left for non-business reasons (as in Some Buried Caesar) he does get caught up in business. I decided not to separate when doing the list.

Inspector Cramer

The Waterfall Picture

I printed off and read them a couple years ago. I was impressed. Of course they aren't Stout. Mr. Dixon never claimed they were. And so I will not criticize them. Period. My main objection to the 'G" stories, other than the quality, are that they are presented as the 'real deal' complete with slick covers and happy blurbs. Kind of like the feeling you get when you eagerly buy a 'new' novel from a favorite author only to find that its just a new title to an older story.

At 11:48 AM 5/20/2002 +0100, Duncan Langford wrote:

For example, while we know Wolfe will on special occasions leave the brownstone, Dixon has him charging around New York - and beyond!

Duncan, have you seen this list? Wolfe leaves the brownstone more often than you think.

One of the interesting things about Agatha Christi is that she established many of the "Rules" of detective fiction, and then systematically set about breaking every one of them.

Stout did the same thing essentially. He sets up a situtation of a heavy-set man who never leaves the house if he can help it especially if it concerns business. Then Stout writes dozens of stories where the detective does just that. In fact, several of the stories aren't even set in NYC! Of course, one of the glories of Stout is that he pulls it off.

WD