Rex Stout
Rex Todhunter Stout (1 December 1886 – 27 October 1975) was an American writer noted for his detective fiction.
In addition to writing fiction, Stout participated in various politically correct activities. He was active in the early years of the American Civil Liberties Union, was a founder of the radical publisher "Vanguard Press", and in the postwar period was active in the United World Federalists, a globalist organization.
The House Committee on Un-American Activities chairman Martin Dies called him a Communist. He was closely watched the FBI, with J. Edgar Hoover considering him an enemy of the bureau and either a Communist or a tool of Communist-dominated groups. Stout denied the accusations.
During WWII, Stout chaired the Writers' War Board (an influential quasi-governmental propaganda organization) and himself did many wartime counter-propaganda broadcasts directed at Axis propaganda broadcasts. He developed an extreme anti-German attitude and wrote the provocative essay "We Shall Hate, or We Shall Fail" ,which generated a flood of protests after its January 1943 publication in The New York Times. Stout also led the Society for the Prevention of World War III, which lobbied for a harsh peace for Germany.
