{{short description|1942 novella collection by Rex Stout}} {{about||the novella by Rex Stout|Black Orchids (novella)|the film|Black Orchids (film)}} {{infobox book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books --> | name = Black Orchids | title_orig = | translator = | image = Stout-BO-1.jpg <!-- FAIR USE of Stout-BO-1.jpg: see image description page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Stout-BO-1.jpg for rationale --> | author = Rex Stout | cover_artist = Alan Harmon | country = United States | language = English | series = Nero Wolfe | genre = Detective fiction | publisher = Farrar & Rinehart | release_date = May 21, 1942 | media_type = Print (hardcover) | pages = 272 pp. (first edition) | oclc = 4547020 | preceded_by = Where There's a Will | followed_by = Not Quite Dead Enough }} '''''Black Orchids''''' is a Nero Wolfe double mystery by Rex Stout published in 1942 by Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. Stout's first short story collection, the volume is composed of two novellas that had appeared in abridged form in ''The American Magazine'': * "Black Orchids" (August 1941, abridged as "Death Wears an Orchid") * "Cordially Invited to Meet Death" (April 1942, abridged as "Invitation to Murder")
==Reviews and commentary== * Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor, ''A Catalogue of Crime'' — In the first, Wolfe and Archie are in fine form, and murder at a flower show provides a suitable background for Wolfe's talents and predatory instincts. Archie himself innocently pulls the trigger. The second story is less satisfactory, involving as it does a highly debatable move by the murderer to disarm suspicion. Besides, too many animals.<ref name="COFC">Barzun, Jacques and Taylor, Wendell Hertig. ''A Catalogue of Crime''. New York: Harper & Row. 1971, revised and enlarged edition 1989. {{ISBN|0-06-015796-8}}</ref> * ''Time'', "Murder in May" (June 1, 1942) — Nero Wolfe and his ebullient amanuensis Archie Goodwin are here at top form in two "novellas" — "Black Orchids" and "Cordially Invited to Meet Death." The first concerns a cleverly contrived murder at New York's annual Flower Show. The second features an adroit bit of poisoning in the fantastic Riverdale ménage — and menagerie — of a successful party-arranger for Manhattan society. First-class entertainment.<ref>[https://archive.today/20130204092616/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,790553,00.html "Murder in May"], ''Time'', June 1, 1942</ref>
==Publication history== *1942, New York: Farrar & Rinehart, May 21, 1942, hardcover<ref>Townsend, Guy M., ''Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography'' (1980, New York: Garland Publishing; {{ISBN|0-8240-9479-4}}), pp. 79–80</ref> :In his limited-edition pamphlet, ''Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I'', Otto Penzler describes the first edition of ''Black Orchids'': "Brick brown cloth, front cover and spine printed with black; rear cover blank. Issued in a brick brown and green pictorial dust wrapper … The first edition has the publisher's monogram logo on the copyright page."<ref>Penzler, Otto, ''Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I'' (2001, New York: The Mysterious Bookshop, limited edition of 250 copies), pp. 17–18</ref> :In April 2006, ''Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine'' estimated that the first edition of ''Black Orchids'' had a value of between $3,000 and $5,000. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.<ref>Smiley, Robin H., "Rex Stout: A Checklist of Primary First Editions." ''Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine'' (Volume 16, Number 4), April 2006, p. 33</ref> *1942, Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1942, hardcover *1942, New York: Detective Book Club #5, August 1942, hardcover *1943, London: Collins Crime Club, July 5, 1943, hardcover *1943, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1943, hardcover *1945, Cleveland, Ohio: World Publishing Company, a Tower Book, March 1945, hardcover *1946, New York: Avon #95, 1946, paperback *1956, New York: Avon #714, 1956, paperback *1963, New York: Pyramid (Green Door) #R-917, September 1963, paperback *1992, New York: Bantam Crimeline {{ISBN|0-553-25719-6}} May 1992, trade paperback *1996, Burlington, Ontario: Durkin Hayes Publishing, DH Audio, "Black Orchids" {{ISBN|0-88646-889-2}} December 1996, audio cassette (unabridged, read by Saul Rubinek) *1998, Burlington, Ontario: Durkin Hayes Publishing, DH Audio {{ISBN|0-88646-472-2}} August 1998, audio cassette (unabridged, read by David Elias), "Cordially Invited to Meet Death" *2009, New York: Bantam Dell Publishing Group (with ''The Silent Speaker'') {{ISBN|978-0-553-38655-4}} August 25, 2009, trade paperback *2010, New York: Bantam Crimeline {{ISBN|0-307-75573-8}} June 30, 2010, e-book
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{wikiquote-inline|Nero Wolfe#Black Orchids|''Black Orchids''}}
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Category:1942 short story collections Category:Nero Wolfe short story collections Category:English-language short story collections Category:Farrar & Rinehart books