An American mystery author, he is best known for his more than forty works featuring Detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant, Archie Goodwin. His other works include the Tecumseh Fox mysteries and numerous short stories.
He spent a few years working in the Navy and was, for a time, responsible for the upkeep of the President's private yacht. In the 1910s, he began publishing his stories in pulp magazines.
He served as President of the Mystery Writers of America association.
He married Fay Kennedy in 1916. In 1932, he wed his second wife, Pola Weinbach Hoffmann.
He was kept on surveillance by J. Edgar Hoover because he was a suspected communist sympathizer.
