NIGHTMARE TOWN - COLLECTION OF 4 STORIES (Hardboiled Mystery Stories; Dell Mapback # 379 );
by Hammett, Dashiell. (intro by Ellery Queen)
- Used
- Paperback
- first
- Condition
- Fair. This is a Reading Copy.
- Seller
-
Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada
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
- COMIC WORLD (CA)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 20140-2
- Title
- NIGHTMARE TOWN - COLLECTION OF 4 STORIES (Hardboiled Mystery Stories; Dell Mapback # 379 );
- Author
- Hammett, Dashiell. (intro by Ellery Queen)
- Illustrator
- Robert Stanley (GGA) Painted Cover.
- Format/Binding
- Paperback
- Book Condition
- Used - Fair. This is a Reading Copy.
- Edition
- First Edition By This Publisher
- Publisher
- Dell Pub. - Map Back.
- Place of Publication
- New York, NY, USA.
- Date Published
- 1950
- Size
- 16mo - over 5¾" - 6&
Terms of Sale
COMIC WORLD
SATISFACTION GUARANTEED since 1971. Simply Let us know problem, then put "Returning Goods to Sender" on outside of package & ship within 2 weeks of the day book is received. MAIL ORDER since 1971, with OVER 25,000 DIFFERENT Satisfied Customers, with over 250,000 completed Mail Orders!
About the Seller
COMIC WORLD
About COMIC WORLD
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Fair
- is a worn book that has complete text pages (including those with maps or plates) but may lack endpapers, half-title, etc....
- PUB
- Common abbreviation for 'published'
- 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...
- Reading Copy
- Indicates a book that is perfectly serviceable for reading. It may have a defect or damage. As such, reading copy is not a...