Crime stories and other writings / Dashiell Hammett. [print]

By:

Hammett, Dashiell, 1894-1961 [Author]

Contributor(s):

Library of America (Firm)

Material type: Text

TextSeries: Library of America ; 125.Publication details: New York : Literary Classics of the United States : (c)2001.; Distributed by Penguin Books, (c)2001.Description: 934 pages ; 21 cmContent type:

text

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

9781931082006

Uniform titles:

Works. Selections. 2001

Subject(s):

Detective and mystery stories, American

LOC classification:

PS3515.L697.C756 2001
PS3515

Online resources:

Table of contents

Available additional physical forms:

Contents:

Arson plus Slippery fingers Crooked souls The tenth clew Zigzags of treachery The house in Turk Street The girl with the silver eyes Women, politics and murder The golden horseshoe Nightmare town The Whosis Kid The scorched face Dead yellow women The gutting of Couffignal The assistant murderer Creeping Siamese The big knock-over 106,000 blood money The main death This king business Fly paper The farewell murder Woman in the dark Two sharp knives The thin man: an early typescript From the memoirs of a private detective "Suggestions to detective story writers"

Subject: In the stories and novellas he wrote for Black Mask and other pulp magazines in the 1920s and 1930s, Dashiell Hammett took the detective story and turned it into a medium for capturing the jarring textures and revved-up cadences of modern American life. In this volume, The Library of America collects the finest of these stories: 24 in all, along with some revealing essays and an earlier version of his novel The Thin Man. Mixing melodramatic panache and poker-faced comedy, a sensitivity to place and a perceptive grasp of social conflict, Hammett's stories are hard-edged entertainments for an era of headlong change and extravagant violence. For the heroic sagas of earlier eras Hammett substituted the up-tempo, devious, sometimes nearly nihilistic exploits of con men and blackmailers, fake spiritualists and thieving politicians, slumming socialites and deadpan assassins. As a guide through this underworld he created the Continental Op, the nameless, laconic detective, world-weary and unblinking, who serves as protagonist of most of these stories. The deliberately unheroic Op is separated only by his code of professionalism from the brutality and corruption that run rampant in stories such as "Zigzags of Treachery," "Dead Yellow Women," "Fly Paper," and "106,000 Blood Money." Hammett's years of experience as a Pinkerton detective give even his most outlandishly plotted mysteries a gritty credibility, and his intimate knowledge of San Francisco made him the perfect chronicler of that city's waterfronts, back alleys, police stations, and luxury hotels. By connecting crime fiction to the realities of American streets and American speech, his Black Mask stories opened up new vistas for generations of writers and readers. In the most comprehensive collection of his stories ever published, read the Hammett you've never read: reprinted here for the first time are the texts that originally appeared in the 1920's and 1930's pulps, without the cuts and revisions introduced by later editors. Also included are revealing essays and an early version of the novel The Thin Man.

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Withdrawn	G. Allen Fleece Library WITHDRAWN	Non-fiction	PS3515.A4347A6 2001 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1 Not for loan		31923001425590

In the stories and novellas he wrote for Black Mask and other pulp magazines in the 1920s and 1930s, Dashiell Hammett took the detective story and turned it into a medium for capturing the jarring textures and revved-up cadences of modern American life. In this volume, The Library of America collects the finest of these stories: 24 in all, along with some revealing essays and an earlier version of his novel The Thin Man. Mixing melodramatic panache and poker-faced comedy, a sensitivity to place and a perceptive grasp of social conflict, Hammett's stories are hard-edged entertainments for an era of headlong change and extravagant violence. For the heroic sagas of earlier eras Hammett substituted the up-tempo, devious, sometimes nearly nihilistic exploits of con men and blackmailers, fake spiritualists and thieving politicians, slumming socialites and deadpan assassins. As a guide through this underworld he created the Continental Op, the nameless, laconic detective, world-weary and unblinking, who serves as protagonist of most of these stories. The deliberately unheroic Op is separated only by his code of professionalism from the brutality and corruption that run rampant in stories such as "Zigzags of Treachery," "Dead Yellow Women," "Fly Paper," and "106,000 Blood Money." Hammett's years of experience as a Pinkerton detective give even his most outlandishly plotted mysteries a gritty credibility, and his intimate knowledge of San Francisco made him the perfect chronicler of that city's waterfronts, back alleys, police stations, and luxury hotels. By connecting crime fiction to the realities of American streets and American speech, his Black Mask stories opened up new vistas for generations of writers and readers. In the most comprehensive collection of his stories ever published, read the Hammett you've never read: reprinted here for the first time are the texts that originally appeared in the 1920's and 1930's pulps, without the cuts and revisions introduced by later editors. Also included are revealing essays and an early version of the novel The Thin Man.

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