Archie Goodwin is a fictional character in a series of detective stories and novels by American author Rex Stout. Archie is the witty narrator of the cases featuring his boss, Nero Wolfe, from 1934 (Fer-de-Lance) to 1975 (A Family Affair). Although his job title is Wolfe's secretary and chauffeur, Archie is effectively Wolfe's partner in the detective business, and the stories often contrast his middle class streetwise persona with Wolfe's aristocratic intelligence.
Character
Archie is Wolfe's live-in assistant in the private investigation business Wolfe runs out of his comfortable and luxurious New York City brownstone house on West 35th Street. Wolfe rarely leaves the brownstone – and makes it a special point to never leave the house for reasons concerning his work – so Archie does most of the actual investigating, followed by reporting his findings to Wolfe, who solves the mystery. Archie is a skilled observer and has trained his memory so that he can make verbatim reports, oral or typewritten, of extended conversations. He claims to be able to type 6 to 7 pages per hour on average, or up to 10 when he needs to hurry. Because Wolfe is generally ignorant of the logistical details of the world outside his house (and uninterested in them) he relies on Archie for various kinds of practical information and opinions. Wolfe also turns to Archie for personal judgments regarding the character of the women connected with a case, as Wolfe is wary of women and tends to keep them at arms-length.
Archie's bedroom is on the third floor of the brownstone, and he owns all of the furniture within it. Under his bed is a gong that is part of an alarm system designed to sound if anyone gets too close to Wolfe's bedroom door or windows at night. He typically eats his breakfast in the kitchen, and lunch and dinner in the dining room with Wolfe. However, if he must hurry to keep an appointment, he will eat in the kitchen or at a restaurant because Wolfe hates to see anyone rush through a meal.
In addition to detective work, Archie also handles Wolfe's bookkeeping and banking, types his correspondence, and keeps the germination and other records for the orchids Wolfe raises as a hobby. His salary was $200 per week, but later it is $400 per week. Archie's hobbies include dancing (usually at the Flamingo), poker, and baseball. He was a fan of the New York Giants until they relocated to San Francisco in 1957, then later became a fan of the New York Mets when that team was founded in 1962. When moving around Manhattan on business, he often prefers to walk rather than using Wolfe's car or taking taxis. Unlike his employer, Archie has only two conspicuous eccentricities: His favorite drink is milk, and he always knows the exact time.
Archie's conversations with other characters often feature his penchant for arch wit, which can serve purposes such as playing devil's advocate to "badger" Wolfe into working; stalling or goading police officers; issuing threats under the guise of ironically ingenuous observations; or charming female characters into cooperating with Wolfe's professional desiderata.
Regardless of what year the story takes place, Archie and the other principal characters in the corpus do not age. Archie is in his early 30s. in Chillicothe, Ohio. At age 12 he lived in Zanesville. Archie once mentions a sister in Ohio (who sent him silk pajamas for his birthday).
Rex Stout was never overly concerned with consistency in the Wolfe books, and Archie himself comfortably relates unreliable information as it came during the course of the story, so some specifics of Archie's background vary in the corpus. In Fer-de-Lance, he comments that his parents died when he was a child, in which Mrs. Jasper Pine has his background investigated. The details she relates are contradicted in other stories. She tells Archie that his father's name is James Arner Goodwin that his mother's maiden name is Leslie, that he has two brothers and two sisters, and that he was born in Canton, Ohio. Archie never mentions the alleged brothers and second sister in the series.