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THE GLASS KEY
by Hammett, Dashiell
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
Rockville, Maryland, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1931. First Edition, Fifth Printing. Hardcover. Octavo, 282 pages. In Good condition, lacking dust jacket. Bound in light green cloth with red and green patterns and light green lettering on spine. Boards have spine edges chipped off, tearing to joints, corners exposed, bumping to corners, and mild edge and shelf wear. Textblock has light age toning and writing in pen on front pastedown. Shelved Room A. 1373057. Special Collections.
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
- Second Story Books, ABAA
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 1373057
- Title
- THE GLASS KEY
- Author
- Hammett, Dashiell
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition, Fifth Printing
- Publisher
- Alfred A. Knopf
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 1931
Terms of Sale
Second Story Books, ABAA
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged. Trade discounts only on items not identified on inventory with special discounts
International customers are responsible for all Duties/Taxes/VATs/etc. For domestic orders, anything valued $300 or more will be shipped signature required. Returns/Refunds will be handled per Biblio's return policy. Please contact us directly, via email, before sending anything back so that we can make the necessary arrangements. Refunds occur when the book is received and the errors/issues/damages have been confirmed.
About the Seller
Second Story Books, ABAA
Biblio member since 2010
Rockville, Maryland
About Second Story Books, ABAA
DC's Oldest Rare and Used Bookstore, Second Story Books operates two open shops in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. We have a large internet presence including this website, Amazon, and Ebay, accredited appraisals member ASA, and an in house book binder. For more information go to www.secondstorybooks.com
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Octavo
- Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
- 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...
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
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