# Three Men Out

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{{Short description|Collection of novellas by Rex Stout}}
{{Infobox book| <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name           = Three Men Out
| image          = Stout-TMO-1.jpg <!--prefer 1st edition-->
| author         = [Rex Stout](/source/Rex_Stout)
| cover_artist   = Bill English
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| series         = [Nero Wolfe](/source/Nero_Wolfe)
| genre          = [Detective fiction](/source/Detective_fiction)
| publisher      = [Viking Press](/source/Viking_Press)
| release_date   = March 26, [1954](/source/1954_in_literature)
| media_type     = Print (hardcover)
| pages          = 181 pp. (first edition)
| oclc           = 5743510
| preceded_by    = [The Golden Spiders](/source/The_Golden_Spiders)
| followed_by    = [The Black Mountain](/source/The_Black_Mountain_(novel))
}}

'''''Three Men Out''''' is a collection of [Nero Wolfe](/source/Nero_Wolfe) [mystery](/source/Mystery_fiction) [novella](/source/novella)s by [Rex Stout](/source/Rex_Stout), published by the [Viking Press](/source/Viking_Press) in 1954. The book comprises three stories that first appeared in ''[The American Magazine](/source/The_American_Magazine)'':

* "[Invitation to Murder](/source/Invitation_to_Murder)" (August 1953, as "Will to Murder")
* "[The Zero Clue](/source/The_Zero_Clue)" (December 1953, as "Scared to Death")
* "[This Won't Kill You](/source/This_Won't_Kill_You)" (September 1952, as "This Will Kill You")

==Publication history==
*1954, New York: The [Viking Press](/source/Viking_Press), March 26, 1954, hardcover<ref name="Townsend">Townsend, Guy M., ''Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography''. New York: Garland Publishing, {{ISBN|0-8240-9479-4}}, 1980. John McAleer, Judson Sapp and Arriean Schemer are associate editors of this definitive publication history.</ref>{{Rp|83|date=October 2012}}
:In his limited-edition pamphlet, ''Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I'', [Otto Penzler](/source/Otto_Penzler) describes the [first edition](/source/Edition_(book)) of ''Three Men Out'': "Red boards, front cover blank. Issued in a red, black and white dust wrapper. … The binding of this title was a textured cardboard designed to resemble cloth; the book club edition has a smoother texture."<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), p. 30</ref>
:In April 2006, ''Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine'' estimated that the first edition of ''Three Men Out'' had a value of between $200 and $350. 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. 34</ref>
*1954, New York: Viking ([Mystery Guild](/source/Book_of_the_Month_Club)), June 1954, 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).<ref>Penzler, Otto, ''Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I'', pp. 19–20</ref>
*1955, London: [Collins Crime Club](/source/Collins_Crime_Club), January 17, 1955, hardcover
*1955, Toronto: [Macmillan](/source/Macmillan_Publishers), 1955, hardcover
*1955, New York: [Bantam](/source/Bantam_Books) #1388, November 1955, paperback
*1980, New York: Bantam Crimeline {{ISBN|0-553-13666-6}} August 1980, seventh printing, paperback
*1991, New York: Bantam Crimeline {{ISBN|0-553-24547-3}} June 1, 1991, paperback
*1994, New York: Bantam Crimeline {{ISBN|0-553-24547-3}} May 1994, paperback, Rex Stout Library edition with introduction by [Linda Ellerbee](/source/Linda_Ellerbee)
*1997, Newport Beach, California: Books on Tape, Inc. {{ISBN|0-7366-3749-4}} July 21, 1997, audio cassette (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)
*2011, New York: Bantam Crimeline {{ISBN|978-0-307-76816-2}} August 17, 2011, [e-book](/source/e-book)

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{Nero Wolfe}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1954 short story collections
Category:Nero Wolfe short story collections
Category:English-language books
Category:Viking Press books

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Three Men Out](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Men_Out) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Men_Out?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.