2 - Do you agree with Anthony Boucher that the short NW stories are
better than the long ones. Develop your answer a bit.

3 - What are your ten favorite NW stories, in order of preference?

4 - What detective fiction writers would you put on a par with Stout?

5 - What detective fiction writers do you think he may have influenced?

6 - What questions would you put to Stout if you could spend an afternoon with him?

7. Do you think Wolfe’s elected status as a shut-in is a liability
or an asset in terms of Wolfe’s storytelling? Give reasons for your
answer

8 - Does it bother you that NW and AG do not age in the stories. Is some plausibility forfeited?

9 - In what ways, in your opinion, has Stout added something really new
to the genre of detective fiction?

10 - Do you agree with Julian Symons who says in his new book, MORTAL
CONSEQUENCES: “Slowly, slowly, the Wolfe stories have declined. The
decline became steep after the end of the forties…”?

11 - What do you regard as Stout’s outstanding merits as a storyteller?

12 - What do you take to be his outstanding defects?

13 - Which of the NW stories do you like least? (Name more than one if
you like.) Why?

14 - In your opinion do NW and/or AG show any kind of development over
the years?

15 - How would you defend yourself if an erudite colleague or friend
said to you, with disdain, “You read Rex Stout?”

16 - Do you have any guesses as to who were NW’s and AG’s literary
antecedents, if they had any? By that, I mean, was Stout influenced
by other detective story writers who wrote before him, and to what
extent if you think the answer is “yes”?

17 - How much of himself do you think Stout has put into NW?   AG?

18 - Do you know of any materials concerning RS outside of the books he
has written?

19 - Do you know of any references to Stout or his creations in books
by other writers?

20. Do you see any patterns repeated in the stories? Any way of grouping the stories?

21. Why do you read detective fiction in general?