Author Country United States | Cover artist Bill English Language English | |
Three Witnesses is a collection of Nero Wolfe mystery novellas by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1956 and itself collected in the omnibus volume Royal Flush (Viking 1965). The book contains three stories that first appeared in The American Magazine:
Contents
Each story in this collection features a witness, not to a murder but to its prologue.
Reviews and commentary
Publication history
In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #10, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part II, Otto Penzler describes the first edition of Three Witnesses: "Pale blue cloth, front cover and spine printed with gold; front and rear covers blank. Issued in a red, black and white dust wrapper."
In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of Three Witnesses had a value of between $200 and $350. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.
The "concept-driven" dustjacket designed by Bill English was cited by graphic design scholar Steven Heller for its spare use of color, sans-serif typography and use of the entire front and back cover area.
The far less valuable Viking book club edition may be distinguished from the first edition in three ways:
References
Three Witnesses (book) Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA