I hope native New Yorkers can help me here. In Some Buried Caesar, Archies note of a conman-" was an individual who should not have been there, since the proper environment for that type is bounded by 42nd and 96th streets to the North and South, and Lexington avenue and Broadway to the east and west. In their habitat they don’t look bad, in fact they help a lot in maintaining the tone, but out in the country like that, still wearing a Crawnley town suit…"
What’s special or different about that area? What the heck is a “Crawnley town suit.”?
I re-read the whole series more or less yearly, and this has always bugged me.
The district described is the touristry area with Time Square, most of the Theatres, Central Park and a lot of Museums. So a lot of marks/rubes/tourists for a conman.
I have never heard the term Crawnley, are you sure that is the spelling?
There is no mention of that tailor outside of the book, so my best (uneducated) guess is that it is a fictionalized version of Crawley.
BTW, have you ever looked at nerowolfedatabase.com ?
The linked worked for me, but only because I went to it through Google.
Here’s a note about the passage
Archie describes Bronson, who was overdressed in his opinion, as he arrived at the Pratt ranch. A Crawnley suit would be more appropriate for a dandy in town rather than a comparatively well-dressed man in the countryside.
This chronological list of Nero Wolfe stories indicates that “Some Buried Caesar” (which appears to be the story you’re quoting, based on your OP) was first published (in abridged form) in American Magazine, in the December 1938 issue; the Wikipedia article for the story says that it was then published as a novel in February of 1939. Given the date of that newspaper article in December of '39, it might be a reprint (or a quote in a review) of the Wolfe story.
Not a native New Yorker, but I’ve lived in the city and suburbs for 37 years.
Part of the neighborhood that he describes is the Upper East Side, Upper East Side - Wikipedia
It’s known for being a stuffy enclave of the rich, including families that have been wealthy for generations.
The Upper West Side is one of my favorite NYC neighborhoods. I consider myself lucky to have lived there 6 years and find it much more relaxed than the Upper East. There are lots of stories about the “never the twain shall meet” divide between the Upper East and Upper West, even though it’s just Central Park between the 2 of them. The story below, from March 10’s NY Times Metropolitan Diary, is just 1 example:
Tangled Up
Dear Diary:
I was walking past Zabar’s [on the Upper West Side] on a sunny spring day when I got tangled up in a small dog’s leash.
The owner apologized profusely, although she needn’t have worried. It only took a moment for me to free myself.
“What has happened to the Upper West Side?” the woman said, making small talk. “I haven’t been here in years. It’s so different than I remember it.”
I have to put in a plug for Kansas here, Rex Stout, who wrote the books, graduated from high school here in Topeka, from Topeka High School. The current school building is fantastic but not built until the 30’s, so Stout would not have been in that buiilding, although my mother was(1950)
I read the Wikipedia article about Stout, and he seems to have had a very interesting life