The League of Frightened Men – January 1972

The League of Frightened Men - January 1972 - Front Cover

The League of Frightened Men - January 1972 - Back Cover

The League of Frightened Men

A Pyramid Book
Copyright 1935, 1963 By Rex Stout
Fifth Printing…January 1972
Contents
The League of Frightened Men

Rear Cover Intro:

ARCHIE GOODWIN HERE…

My job is to see that Nero Wolfe has every opportunity to exercise his brain. That means dealing with crackpots and clients so fatso has time to drink beer, tend his orchids — and think. But when thirty frightened men called on Wolfe to solve their special problem, somebody had to do something more than just sit there. Because these guys were dying off too fast…

THE LEAGUE OF FRIGHTENED MEN

Thirty men live in terror while a hate twisted genius celebrates his murders in verse — and promises more to come. Nero Wolfe tackles his strangest case… for Wolfe knew who the killer was, and knew that his crimes could never be proved!

Inside Cover Text:

There was no mystery

Yet thirty people – bankers, doctors, taxi drivers, lawyers, professors, salesmen – had gathered in Nero Wolfe’s house to offer him a fantastic fee.

No proof of murder

Yet two men had died, another disappeared, and thirty more lived in terror of a man they had thought was their friend.

No doubt of guilt

Yet the man who bragged of killing and wrote verses promising death to all his enemies walked free – and Nero Wolfe could not stop him!

The League of Frightened Men – January 1972

The League of Frightened Men - January 1972 - Front Cover

The League of Frightened Men - January 1972 - Back Cover

A Pyramid Book
Copyright 1935, 1963 By Rex Stout
Fifth Printing…January 1972
Contents
The League of Frightened Men

Rear Cover Intro:

ARCHIE GOODWIN HERE…

My job is to see that Nero Wolfe has every opportunity to exercise his brain. That means dealing with crackpots and clients so fatso has time to drink beer, tend his orchids — and think. But when thirty frightened men called on Wolfe to solve their special problem, somebody had to do something more than just sit there. Because these guys were dying off too fast…

THE LEAGUE OF FRIGHTENED MEN
Thirty men live in terror while a hate twisted genius celebrates his murders in verse — and promises more to come. Nero Wolfe tackles his strangest case… for Wolfe knew who the killer was, and knew that his crimes could never be proved!

Inside Cover Text:

There was no mystery

Yet thirty people – bankers, doctors, taxi drivers, lawyers, professors, salesmen – had gathered in Nero Wolfe’s house to offer him a fantastic fee.

No proof of murder

Yet two men had died, another disappeared, and thirty more lived in terror of a man they had thought was their friend.

No doubt of guilt

Yet the man who bragged of killing and wrote verses promising death to all his enemies walked free – and Nero Wolfe could not stop him!

The League of Frightened Men – Baring-Gould Excerpt

The following is an excerpt from NERO WOLFE of West
Thirty-Fifth Street by William S. Baring-Gould concerning THE LEAGUE
OF FRIGHTENED MEN.

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For Wolfe and Archie, the affair began on
the afternoon of Friday, November 2, 1934 (it came to it’s startling conclusion
on Monday, November 12), but actually it had begun in 1909, when Paul Chaplin,
the novelist, had been permanently crippled as the result of “a boyish
prank” played on him by his Harvard classmates. The classmates formed a
“League of Atonement” to help Paul, and all seemed to be going as well
as possible under the circumstances until June 1934, when a crowd of them
assembled at Fillmore Collard’s place near Marblehead, Massachusetts. Judge
Harrison had come East from Indiana for the commencement exercises at his
son’s graduation. They missed him that night, and the next morning they
found his body at the foot of the cliff, beaten about among the rocks by
the surf. To tragedy was added terror: soon thereafter each surviving member
of the league had received a set of verses boasting of the judge’s murder.
These verses could have been written by only one man: Paul Chapin.

Then Eugene Dryer, the art dealer, was poisoned, and Andrew
Hibbard, the psychologist, disappeared. And in each case there was another
set of taunting verses….

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Information taken from NERO WOLFE of West Thirty-Fifth Street by William
S. Baring-Gould, pages 97-98 of Bantam paperback edition published February
1970