of reason, the holding of conferences, the description of places and characters, and the pace of storytelling (though here we have a bit of a plateau). Fox helps a girl (assistant to the operative Dol Bonner) exculpate herself when her uncle is murdered. … A good job. Publication history 1940, The Second Mystery Book, an anthology. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, November 28, 1940, hardcover no date, Chicago: Century, abridged 1945, London: Collins Crime Club, July 12, 1945, hardcover 1949, New York: Dell #299 (mapback by Gerald Gregg), April 1949 1965, New York: Pyramid (Green Door) #R-1166, April 1965; second printing #R1785, April 1968; third printing #R-1785, September 1968; fourth printing #N-2923 1973, London: Hamish Hamilton (A Fingerprint Book), 1973 "Bitter End" Rex Stout's publisher Farrar & Rinehart scheduled Bad for Business for November 1940 release. Like many of Stout's stories, the book was offered to The American Magazine for advance publication in abridged form. "To Stout's surprise," wrote biographer John McAleer, "Sumner Blossom, publisher of The American Magazine, refused to pursue the Fox piece but offered Stout double payment if he would convert the story into a Wolfe novella. To Blossom's surprise, and maybe his own, Rex effected the transformation in eleven days. As he explained to me later, by then he had already become deeply committed to the war against Hitler and needed the money." "Bitter End" was the first Nero Wolfe novella, published in the November 1940 issue of The American Magazine. The story was first published in book form in the posthumous limited-edition collection Corsage: A Bouquet of Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe edited by Michael Bourne, published in 1977 by James A. Rock & Co., Publishers. "Bitter End" was later published by Bantam Books in the collection Death Times Three (1985). References External links Novels by Rex Stout 1940 American novels Farrar & Rinehart books