Devil Take the Hindmost by Paul Chapin
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| Harvard University 1828 by Granger: thanks to Fine Art America |
Author: Paul Chapin
Publisher: not known
Source book: The League of Frightened Men by Rex Stout (Nero Wolfe #2)
Paul Chapin was badly injured in a college hazing incident years ago and left permanently crippled. The group of friends responsible remain ashamed, and remorseful of their actions. Chapin has married, and has recently written a controversial book called Devil Take the Hindmost (no, I don’t know what it’s about or why it is controversial), which Nero Wolfe has read.
When two of the group die suddenly and a third disappears, Chapin is suspected of murder. Naturally he didn’t do it. But he was sending creepy poems to the group, intending to frighten them. Which, you know, isn’t ideal under the circumstances. Creepy poems? Really?
There is an embezzler, a character who faked his own death, the sudden murder of the man who married the girl Chapin was once in love with, the group don’t agree with Nero Wolfe’s assessment of the situation and don’t want to pay him, and the original murders turn out to be a tragic accident and a suicide. This astonishingly complex plot is apparently one of the most influential works of mystery fiction.
But what we want to know is, does Paul Chapin write another book? Well, he threatens to. He says he’s going to write a new book featuring a character based closely on Nero Wolfe, and he will meet an unpleasant end… Maybe he also writes The Iron Heel.
What I have heard about hazing leads me to think it is a thoroughly unpleasant practice. If I were Emperor of the Galaxy I would outlaw hazing at once on pain of death for the perpetrators. I went to a school where we were all supposed to jump over a sunken stone path which was quite wide. It looked dangerous to me. My initiator told me if I didn’t jump no one would ever speak to me ever again. I refused to jump. Nobody ever mentioned it. I survived. I am extremely glad I never had to go through some of the horrible hazing things I have read about.
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| Cornell Crew Holding a Boat by Edward Penfield: thanks to Fine Art America |
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