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Portrait image of Rex Stout Photo: Santi Visalli / Getty Images (1967)

Sample of authors

Stout, Rex

The American author Rex Todhunter Stout was born in Noblesville, Indiana, as the sixth of nine children to John and Lucetta Todhunter Stout who were both Quakers. When he was only a few months old, the family moved to Topeka, Kansas. As a child, Stout was good at mathematics and languages and he was later admitted to the University of Kansas at Lawrence, but his family could not afford to pay...

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Portrait of Ngaio Marsh Photo: Murray/Fairfax Media via Getty Images (1960)

Sample of authors

Marsh, Ngaio

The New Zealand author Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh was born in Merivale, Christchurch. Her father was an immigrant English bank manager and her mother was born in New Zealand, although her family too originally came from England. Ngaio is the Maori word for "reflection on water". A somewhat eccentric and confused man, Marsh's father did not report his daughter's birth to the authorities until 1900,...

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