The Big Knockover: Selected Stories and Short Novels
by Hammett, Dashiell
- Used
- very good
- Paperback
- first
- Condition
- Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 0679722599
- ISBN 13
- 9780679722595
- Seller
-
Seattle, Washington, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Synopsis
Dashiell Samuel Hammett was born in St. Mary’s County. He grew up in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Hammett left school at the age of fourteen and held several kinds of jobs thereafter—messenger boy, newsboy, clerk, operator, and stevedore, finally becoming an operative for Pinkerton’s Detective Agency. Sleuthing suited young Hammett, but World War I intervened, interrupting his work and injuring his health. When Sergeant Hammett was discharged from the last of several hospitals, he resumed detective work. He soon turned to writing, and in the late 1920s Hammett became the unquestioned master of detective-story fiction in America. In The Maltese Falcon (1930) he first introduced his famous private eye, Sam Spade. The Thin Man (1932) offered another immortal sleuth, Nick Charles. Red Harvest (1929), The Dain Curse (1929), and The Glass Key (1931) are among his most successful novels. During World War II, Hammett again served as sergeant in the Army, this time for more than two years, most of which he spent in the Aleutians. Hammett’s later life was marked in part by ill health, alcoholism, a period of imprisonment related to his alleged membership in the Communist Party, and by his long-time companion, the author Lillian Hellman, with whom he had a very volatile relationship. His attempt at autobiographical fiction survives in the story “Tulip,” which is contained in the posthumous collection The Big Knockover (1966, edited by Lillian Hellman). Another volume of his stories, The Continental Op (1974, edited by Stephen Marcus), introduced the final Hammett character: the “Op,” a nameless detective (or “operative”) who displays little of his personality, making him a classic tough guy in the hard-boiled mold—a bit like Hammett himself.
Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- Arundel Books of Seattle (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 005513639
- Title
- The Big Knockover: Selected Stories and Short Novels
- Author
- Hammett, Dashiell
- Format/Binding
- Trade Paperback
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10
- 0679722599
- ISBN 13
- 9780679722595
- Publisher
- Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
- Place of Publication
- New York, New York, U.s.a.
- Date Published
- 1989
- Keywords
- FICTION MYSTERY DETECTIVE GENERAL HARD BOILED WHAR.790, , , , , , , ,
Terms of Sale
Arundel Books of Seattle
7-day return only if not as described (you must notify us immediately on upon receipt of any problem). We pack carefully.
About the Seller
Arundel Books of Seattle
About Arundel Books of Seattle
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Trade Paperback
- Used to indicate any paperback book that is larger than a mass-market paperback and is often more similar in size to a hardcover...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Shelf Wear
- Shelf wear (shelfwear) describes damage caused over time to a book by placing and removing a book from a shelf. This damage is...