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The Big Knockover: Selected Stories and Short Novels
by Hammett, Dashiell
- Used
- Paperback
- first
- Condition
- VG+
- Seller
-
Alliance, Ohio, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
NY: Vintage Books. VG+. 1972. 1st Printing. Paperback. Vintage Books #V-829, 1972. First printing of this edition. VG+ condit ion. Rubs to the book's corners. Faint crease along the length of the spine. Mild tanning to the wrappers' versos. Edited with an introducti on by Lillian Hellman. .
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.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Dearly Departed Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 41880
- Title
- The Big Knockover: Selected Stories and Short Novels
- Author
- Hammett, Dashiell
- Format/Binding
- Paperback
- Book Condition
- Used - VG+
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- 1st Printing
- Publisher
- Vintage Books
- Place of Publication
- NY
- Date Published
- 1972
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
Terms of Sale
Dearly Departed Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Dearly Departed Books
Biblio member since 2009
Alliance, Ohio
About Dearly Departed Books
Selling books since 1978. We specialize in SF, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Western & Pulp Fiction. With an inventory of more than 35,000 Hardcover 1st editions, Vintage Paperbacks , Pulp Magazines & general antiquarian books. Store front open by chance or appointment.
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- Spine
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